Weekend Event Planner

9 best things to do in Dallas on 4th of July weekend

With the 4th of July falling on a Friday this year, the selection of non-Independence Day events around Dallas is sparser than usual, but there will still be fun things to do. They include two theater productions, three comedians, a music festival with some notable performers, and the final days of a significant art exhibition.

Photo by Catherine Downes

July 4th-themed events, like Addison Kaboom Town!, abound in and around Dallas on July 3 and 4.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. If you want more options, check out the calendar for an even longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, July 3

Independence Day Eve events
As is tradition, many cities put on Independence Day events the day before the 4th of July. You can find events in Grand Prairie, Garland, Addison, Denton, Frisco, Arlington, Dallas, Irving, and Carrollton.

Friday, July 4

4th of July events
For traditionalists who like to wait until the actual day to celebrate the 4th of July, there will naturally be events all over the place, including Irving, Arlington, McKinney, The Colony, Grand Prairie, Rowlett, Little Elm, Dallas, Frisco, Plano, and Grapevine.

American Chronicle Theatre Co. presents King Kirby
King Kirby follows legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby from the tough Jewish ghetto of Hell’s Kitchen in New York, to the harrowing battlefields of Normandy during WWII, to tense Senate hearings in the 1950s. Audiences will watch as he creates some of the most iconic heroes in pop culture: Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the New Gods, and countless others. The hero's journey shows Kirby pouring his quintessentially Twentieth Century life into his comics, only to make a fateful mistake that sends him into obscurity while his creations become among the most recognizable in the world. The production runs through July 12 at Cox Playhouse in Plano.

Improv Addison presents Chingo Bling
Chingo Bling is known for his insightful, unapologetic stand-up comedy, and multiple viral videos. He has appeared in everything from feature films, Netflix, and MTV shows, to comedic web series, musical parodies, and live stand-up comedy shows. His podcast, Red Pill Tamales, can be heard on all listening platforms. He'll perform six times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Art Centre Theatre presents Girls Weekend
In this lightning-quick farce, four women travel to Dot’s Northwoods cabin to consume copious amounts of wine, laugh at their lives, trade stories and chat about their book club’s latest selection. However, after the third case of wine comes through the door, it becomes clear there will be more stewing than reviewing. The production runs through July 19 at Art Centre Theatre in Plano.

Improv Arlington presents Benji Brown
Benji Brown began his career in radio while honing his skills as a stand-up comedian with a unique voice and hilarious characters. He became a key fixture on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, and went on to work with such A-list headliners as Smiley, Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, and Monique. He's also appeared in a number of TV specials and commercials. He'll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Arlington.

Saturday, July 5

Outlaw Music Festival
The 10th anniversary tour of the Outlaw Music Festival will feature a lineup of legends and superstars, including Willie Nelson (whose discography, with the new Oh What a Beautiful World, now numbers 103) & Family, Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers, The Mavericks, and Tami Neilson. The festival takes place at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Dallas Comedy Club presents Jazmyn W
Jazmyn W is a stand-up comedian, content creator, host, and actress. She left her career in tech to pursue comedy full-time and was named one of BET’s 2021 "Influencers To Watch." She was a featured comedian in Martin Lawrence’s Lit Tour, Kevin Hart’s LOL Radio Presents: Hot Mic, and Keep Your Distance presented by Kevonstage. She'll perform twice on Saturday at Dallas Comedy Club.

Sunday, July 6

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Marisol: A Retrospective" closing day
Sunday is the final day to view "Marisol: A Retrospective" at the Dallas Museum of Art, the most significant retrospective to date dedicated to the art of Marisol, known one of the most influential artists of the mid-1960s for her delightfully satirical and deceptively political life-size totemic figures. The exhibition showcases more than 250 artworks and documents, including 39 making their public debut with the exhibition tour, that contextualize Marisol’s powerful body of work and demonstrate the extraordinary relevance of her unique vision of culture and society.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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