Lorde will perform at South Side Ballroom on March 4, 2014, the second concert on her 18-city North American tour.
Photo by Brendan Walter
Most 17-year-olds are getting ready to head off to college, but New Zealand singer Lorde is on a slightly different trajectory: She'll come to Dallas on March 4, 2014 at South Side Ballroom as part of her first North American tour.
In fact, Texans get first dibs at seeing her, as she'll kick off the tour in Austin on March 3 and then head to Houston on March 5 before visiting 15 other cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Lorde is one of the breakout stars of 2013 thanks to her debut album, Pure Heroine, and its inescapable hit single, "Royals," which recently finished a nine-week run as the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lorde received four Grammy nominations for her work, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.
Lorde has been praised for her singing and songwriting abilities — she co-wrote all 10 songs on Pure Heroine — but it will be interesting to see if she has the courage of her convictions going forward. "Royals" famously disses the excesses that often come along with fame, but her quick rise already has her cozying up to other famous people.
Tickets for the Dallas concert go on sale to the general public on Friday, December 20.
Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.
Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.
Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).
After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.
Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.
The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.
Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.
Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.
The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.
