Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Although the weather's been running hot and cold, 2023 definitely has started to heat up on the event side of the world. This weekend in and around Dallas will feature two well-known comedians, two orchestra concerts, two new local theater productions, two closings of notable art exhibitions, and more.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, January 12

Noel Miller: Everything is F#&ked
Noel Miller's biting one-liners and topical social commentary has made him a force to be reckoned with in the comedy world. In addition to starring in popular YouTube series That's Cringe, and comedy duo + podcast Tiny Meat Gang with fellow comedian Cody Ko, Miller has created successful series on his own, including his format around hit British reality show Love Island. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Sibelius Symphony No. 2"
Solemn Prelude, a lost work by Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor that recently discovered, opens this Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert. Pianist Paul Lewis will solo on Grieg’s Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, and the concert closes with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. Conducted by Ryan Bancroft, there will be performances on both Thursday and Friday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Rover Dramawerks presents Four Weddings and an Elvis
Anything can happen in a wedding chapel in Las Vegas ... and does! From a couple getting married by the King himself as revenge on their exes, to arrogant, aging stars tying the knot as a publicity stunt, to a ceremony that really needs to happen before the police arrive, to the nuptials of the wedding chapel owner herself, what happens in Vegas ... is hilarious! The production will run through January 28 at Cox Building Playhouse in Plano.

Arts Mission Oak Cliff presents Cabaret
In collaboration with Arts Mission Oak Cliff, Brian Harden, Oak Cliff resident and founder of The Lost Boy Presents, brings a contemporary rendition of Cabaret to the neighborhood. The historic sanctuary of AMOC, which mirrors the sanctity of the Kit Kat Club, provides an immersive and intimate setting for the show’s historically relevant and politically provocative narrative set in 1931 Berlin. As romances develop in this modern iteration of the Broadway classic, so does the swelling tide to suppress individuality and increase conformity with the Nazi ideal. The production runs through January 21.

Friday, January 13

Jeff Dunham: Still Not Canceled
Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is a comedy superstar, with a career that has included broadcast specials, global tours, and a best-selling autobiography. Dunham’s new one-hour Comedy Central Special, Me the People, premiered on November 25, 2022. Dunham and his cast of characters will perform at American Airlines Center as part of his “Still Not Canceled” North American tour.

TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Hamid Rahmanian's Song of the North
Hamid Rahmanian's Song of the North, making its Texas debut, is a magical evening of large-scale shadow puppetry that transports the audience into ancient worlds full of color, history, and stunning imagery. An inspirational epic from ancient Persia comes to life in the multi-disciplinary performance created through shadow puppetry, projected animation, music, movement, and theater. There will be performances on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday, January 14

Allen Philharmonic Orchestra & Symphony Chorus presents The Wonderful Wizardry of Harry Potter
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling’s first installment of her iconic Harry Potter series, the Allen Philharmonic Orchestra & Symphony Chorus presents The Wonderful Wizardry of Harry Potter. The evening will feature a family-friendly collection of music designed to celebrate the magic of storytelling, including music from Harry Potter, the Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, and the Chronicles of Narnia, as well as famous classical works such as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and The Firebird Suite. The concert takes place at Lowery Auditorium in Allen.

Sunday, January 15

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view "Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form" at the Dallas Museum of Art, the first-ever museum retrospective for Medellín, an influential Mexican American artist and teacher whose work helped shape the Texas art scene for six decades. Medellín was a noted sculptor who mastered a wide range of media, engaging with modernist trends in both his native Mexico and the United States.

Nasher Sculpture Center presents Matthew Ronay: "The Crack, the Swell, an Earth, an Ode" closing day
Sunday will also be the final day to view "The Crack, the Swell, an Earth, an Ode" by Matthew Ronay at Nasher Sculpture Center. The Brooklyn-based artist expanded the scale of his work to create his largest and most ambitious sculpture to date, "The Crack, the Swell, an Earth, an Ode," a 23-foot-long sculpture that offers a comprehensive introduction to Ronay’s surreal worlds and the various creatures inhabiting them.

The Dallas Opera presents Titus Family Recital: Ying Fang
If you love the sound of an exquisitely beautiful voice and the emotion that can only be expressed by a true artist, then you must hear Ying Fang. On the cusp of a sparkling career, she has mesmerized audiences at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and more. She'll perform at Moody Performance Hall.

Photo courtesy of Noel Miller

Noel Miller: Everything is F#&ked will be at Majestic Theatre on January 12.

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Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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