Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's another big music weekend around Dallas, with no fewer than seven concerts featured in this week's event roundup. Other choices include a short film festival, a unique dance event, a new local theater production, a visit from all-star drag queens, a great comedian, the final days of an art exhibition, and a Broadway star getting personal.

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

Thursday, August 22

Photo courtesy of Future

Future will join forces with Metro Boomin for a concert at American Airlines Center on August 24.

Sammy Hagar in concert
Rocker Sammy Hagar has been a big part of the genre for over 50 years, both as a solo artist with hits like "I Can't Drive 55" and with a variety of different bands, most notably his on-again, off-again time with Van Halen. At this concert, part of The Best of All Worlds tour, he'll be joined by rock heavyweights Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham, and Joe Satriani, as well as special guest Loverboy. They'll all perform at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Friday, August 23

DIFF Shorts Film Festival
The inaugural DIFF Shorts Film Festival aims to elevate short films and celebrate shorts filmmakers. The festival will feature 14 film blocks with more than 80 films, industry panels, daily red carpets, and filmmaker receptions. Awards will be given for Best Short Film, Best Texas Film, Best Music Video, Best Student Film, Best Documentary Film, and Best First-Time Filmmaker. The event takes place at Angelika Film Center through Sunday.

Stone Temple Pilots and Live in concert
Rock bands Stone Temple Pilots and Live scored No. 1 albums in the mid-'90s - Stone Temple Pilots with Purple featuring "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song, Live with Throwing Copper featuring "I Alone" and "Lightning Crashes." They'll sing their hits and more at Dos Equis Pavilion as part of the co-headlining Jubilee Tour, joined by fellow '90s bands Soul Asylum and Our Lady Peace.

B. Moore Dance presents The Heart and Soul of Donny Hathaway
The Heart and Soul of Donny Hathaway is a dance and music concert that celebrates the legacy of the legendary musician with a modern interpretation of his music, blending various genres to create an immersive experience. The concert features Booker T. Washington HSPVA Principal Gary Williams, vocalist Mirek.e.l, poet Brandon Goodluv, and keyboardist Kwinton Gray. There will be three performances through Saturday at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The Core Theatre presents 12 Angry Jurors
12 Angry Jurors is a play that contemplates the huge responsibility of 12 ordinary people as they consider the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder. The 12 jurors bring their own histories, prejudices, and biases to the jury room as they work through this life or death decision. The production runs through September 8 at The Core Theatre in Richardson.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Live
Fan favorites Angeria, Jorgeous, Plastique Tiara, Roxxxy Andrews, Shannel, and Vanessa Vanjie from RuPaul's Drag Race will return in this show-within-a-show highlighting the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent it takes for a Queen to be an All Star. The performance will take place at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Classic Albums Live
Two of the most popular albums of all time will be revived at two separate events at Winspear Opera House this weekend. Presented by Classic Albums Live, which takes the greatest albums and recreates them live on stage – note for note, cut for cut, using the best musicians - Friday will bring a performance of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, followed by Led Zeppelin II on Saturday.

Majestic Theatre presents Luenell
Luenell is a force of nature best known for her role as the “hooker with the heart of gold” in Borat. She's also appeared in feature films like I Hate You Dad with Adam Sandler and Leighton Meester and Think Like a Man with Arielle Kebell and Meagan Good, as well as TV shows like The Middle and Always Sunny In Philadelphia. She'll perform for one night only at Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, August 24

Joss Stone in concert
R&B/soul singer Joss Stone came out of the gates swinging with her 2003 debut album, The Soul Sessions, featuring mostly cover versions of soul songs from the '60s and '70s. She's gone back and forth between original songs and covers throughout her career, with her distinctive voice always at the forefront. Although she's put out a couple of recent non-album singles, her last new album came in 2022 with Never Forget My Love. She'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Future and Metro Boomin in concert
Future is one of the most popular rappers of the last 10 years, with each of his last seven solo albums coming in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, R&B/Hip Hop, and Rap charts. Metro Boomin accomplished the same feat with his two solo albums, and wouldn't you know it, the same thing happened when he and Future collaborated on two albums - We Don't Trust You and We Still Don't Trust You - earlier this year. The two rappers will show off their skills at this concert at American Airlines Center.

Sunday, August 25

Nasher Sculpture Center presents The Haas Brothers: "Moonlight" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view "Moonlight," an exhibition by Austin-native, Los Angeles-based artists Nikolai and Simon Haas, at Nasher Sculpture Center. Their other-worldly sculptures are installed in the museum and garden and outside on Flora Street, greeting museum visitors and passersby alike from, conjuring the magic of moonlight through the summer months.

Garland Summer Musicals presents An Afternoon with Kelly and Miguel Cervantes
Hamilton: An American Musical star Miguel Cervantes will headline this intimate event with stories and songs from his over 2,000 performances as the Ten Dollar Founding Father in Chicago and on Broadway. He will be joined by his wife, USA Today bestselling author, Kelly, who shares her grief journey: going from their daughter’s primary caregiver to being forced into retirement from the most fulfilling job she will ever know. The event takes place at Plaza Theater in Garland.

Ice Spice in concert
Ice Spice is not a long-lost member of the Spice Girls, but instead a rising rapper who released her debut album, Y2K!, last month. Her profile has been raised in the last couple of years thanks to collaborations with PinkPantheress and Nicki Minaj, most notably on "Barbie World" from the Barbie soundtrack. She'll perform at The Factory in Deep Ellum, joined by Cash Cobain and RiotUSA..

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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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