Weekend Event Planner

These are the 7 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

The events around Fort Worth this weekend will range from quiet to loud. Among your choices will be a new art exhibition, a one-man theater show, Oscar quality movies, an up-and-coming singer, classical music, a new local theater production, and a showcase for monster trucks.

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, February 21

The Art Galleries at TCU presents TCU Juried Student Exhibition opening reception
The 2019 Annual TCU Juried Student Exhibition is open to all TCU students and features a wide range of works, including painting, photography, video, drawing, sculpture, audio, ceramics, and installation. The jurors, acclaimed DFW artists Letitia and Sedrick Huckaby, selected works for the exhibition and will present awards, including “Best in Show” sponsored by the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association, during the opening reception. The exhibition will be on view through February 28.

Performing Arts Fort Worth presents Robert Dubac’s The Book of Moron
A month after The Book of Mormon came to town, a similar-sounding but completely different type of show arrives to entertain the masses. The Book of Moron is a fast-paced, hilarious production that combines satire and theater. It's a hilarious joy ride over the pot-holed highways of cultural hypocrisy with Robert Dubac’s satirical bulls-eye. The show will play at McDavid Studio through Sunday.

Friday, February 22

Magnolia at the Modern: 2019 Oscar-Nominated Short Films
For the 14th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films. With the Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, this is the perfect time to get familiar with these mostly under-the-radar award-worthy films. All of the films from both the animated and live action categories will screen in separate showings every day through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Kimbell Social Club presents Devi
Fort Worth pop singer Devi will perform an acoustic set at the first Kimbell Social Club happy hour of 2019. Devi is an electronic pop singer who is making a name for herself in the Fort Worth music scene with her unique, dreamy sounds and dark vocals. She was recently nominated for Best Female Vocalist in Dallas-Fort Worth and listed in Fort Worth Weekly's Top Local Videos of 2018.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Sibelius 5
In his diary, Jean Sibelius noted the inspiration for the grand theme in his Fifth Symphony: "Today I saw 16 swans. God, what beauty!" Audiences can experience the music that depicts this moment with conductor Ruth Reinhardt and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The concert, taking place once daily through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall, will also feature pianist Stephen Hough performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Stolen Shakespeare Festival: Wolf Hall
As part of the Stolen Shakespeare Festival, Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents Wolf Hall, which begins in England in 1527. Henry has been King for almost 20 years and is desperate for a male heir; but Cardinal Wolsey cannot deliver the divorce he craves. Yet for a man with the right talents, this crisis could be an opportunity. Thomas Cromwell is a commoner who has risen in Wolsey's household — and he will stop at nothing to secure the King's desires and advance his own ambitions. The play, which is running in rep with Henry VIII, will play through March 3 at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.

Saturday, February 23

Monster Jam
Approximately 12 feet tall and about 12 feet wide, Monster Jam trucks are custom-designed machines that sit atop 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds. Built for short, high-powered bursts of speed, Monster Jam trucks are capable of speeds of up to 100 miles per hour and can fly up to 125 to 130 feet in distance and up to 35 feet in the air. The awe-inspiring trucks will strut their stuff at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Monster Jam will be at AT&T Stadium on February 23.

Photo courtesy of Feld Entertainment

Monster Jam will be at AT&T Stadium on February 23.

event-planner

Movie Review

New thriller A Different Man: a lesson in be careful what you wish for

Photo by Matt Infante/courtesy of A24

Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan in A Different Man.

Movies that deal with physical or psychological differences in humans tend to be earnest affairs, with the affected person either rising above the odds or teaching people around them a lesson in compassion. Nothing of the sort is featured in A Different Man, where the only lesson learned is one of humility by the main character with the physical difference.

Edward (Sebastian Stan), whose face and head are enlarged from an unspecified condition, is an actor who makes a meager living starring in workplace education videos. He lives in a drab, rundown apartment, and seems generally depressed, just trying to get through each day without suffering some kind of humiliation.

His outlook starts to change when Ingrid (Renate Reinsve) moves in next door and treats him with kindness. Whether to attract her attention or to get out of his malaise, Edward agrees to an experimental treatment that promises to get rid of his condition. It’s no big spoiler to say that it works, but what happens after is a surprise, especially when Oswald (Adam Pearson), a man with a similar condition but a much sunnier disposition, comes into his life.

Written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, the film is nowhere near as straightforward as that synopsis makes it sound. Schimberg inserts all kinds of weird details, including a never-ending leak in Edward’s apartment and odd time jumps, that keep the audience on their heels. And while it would be wrong to say that Edward’s condition is ignored by others in the film, as he gets more than a few stares, few people actively comment on it.

In fact, Schimberg seems much more interested in Edward’s mental health than his physical state. His personality stands in stark contrast to that of Oswald, who seems to approach every situation with positivity and confidence, as if his condition didn’t even exist. The film has a lot going on after the two meet, but the push and pull between how each man approaches the world provides the central conflict.

Consequently, the film often plays out more as a comedy than as a drama. Edward’s post-transformation world is even stranger than the one he inhabited before, and every interaction he has is laced with an undercurrent of artifice, with no one acting in a normal manner. Edward finds himself in increasingly absurd situations that test his mental wellness, and the oddness of them elicit laughs more than anything else.

Stan is a chameleon of an actor who’s played everything from a Marvel superhero to an upcoming turn as a young Donald Trump. He plays both sides of Edward well, giving off a sad-sack energy no matter his physical state. But it’s Pearson who steals the movie, as he projects a spiritedness that turns Oswald from someone who might be pitied into someone who’s a force of nature. Reinsve makes for an able foil for both characters.

A Different Man is a film that’s in conversation with the recent The Substance, as they both deal with people who seek to change their appearance, albeit for very different reasons. In both cases, it falls under a “be careful what you wish for” scenario, with the solution not necessarily delivering the result the person wanted.

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A Different Man is now playing in theaters.

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