Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

This weekend in and around Fort Worth will be heavy with music, with half of the events having a musical bent. They include a new festival, concerts by two stars of the '90s, an eccentric group from the Pacific Northwest, and classical music performed by the composer. There will also be events featuring theater, movies, and opera.

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, April 12

Performing Arts Fort Worth presents Dixie’s Never Wear A Tube Top While Riding A Mechanical Bull And 16 Other Things I Learned While I Was Drinking Last Thursday
Following on the heels of Dixie’s Tupperware Party last weekend, Dixie Longate will present the extremely wordy Dixie’s Never Wear A Tube Top While Riding A Mechanical Bull And 16 Other Things I Learned While I Was Drinking Last Thursday at McDavid Studio through Sunday. What do a jeweled crown, a cardboard cutout of Julie Andrews, and a box of moon pies have in common? You'll find out in this hilarious show.

Friday, April 13

Magnolia at the Modern: Leaning Into the Wind
Sixteen years after the release of the groundbreaking film, Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time, director Thomas Riedelsheimer has returned to work with the artist. Leaning into the Wind follows the British sculptor and environmentalist on his exploration of the layers of his world and the impact of the years on himself and his art. The film will screen seven times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

CFW Festival
The inaugural CFW (Craft Beer, Food, and Wine) Festival will bring North Texas’ premier craft beer brands, wine brands, and world-class restaurants together for two days at Globe Life Park in Arlington, with live entertainment, chef-inspired cooking demonstrations, and music. The festival will feature performances by Young the Giant and R.LUM.R on Friday, and Josh Abbott Band and Lonestar on Saturday.

Art&Seek's State of the Arts presents Opera for Everyone
With changing audiences' aesthetic expectations and new developments in technology, the curtain is up for new opera-goers. At this event at the Kimbell Art Museum, you can meet the innovative leaders who are introducing compelling contemporary performances with engaging social relevancy to North Texas communities. Moderator Jerome Weeks, senior arts reporter and producer for Art&Seek, will be joined by Jonathan Eaton from the University of North Texas, David Gately from Texas Christian University, and Tuomas Hiltunen of the Fort Worth Opera.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Pink Martini
Portland-based and positively fabulous Pink Martini will take audiences on a multilingual, genre-defying journey in this concert that will close out the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Pops Season. Backed by members of the orchestra's string section, Pink Martini will perform enchanting hits once a day through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Amphibian Stage Productions presents How Embarrassing for Her
Jacqueline Novak finds everything embarrassing except for the obvious stuff. Revealing intimate details of her life to strangers? Her chosen profession. Crying in public? She wrote a book encouraging it. Being caught for even a moment having something resembling self esteem? Unbearable. How Embarrassing for Her weaves personal stories and comedic insights to parse what does and does not deserve our embarrassment. Novak will put on five performances through April 21.

Little Texas in concert
Country band Little Texas may have only released six albums in their career, including 2015's Young for a Long Time, but they will forever be synonymous with the Lone Star State thanks to their 1993 hit, "God Blessed Texas." They've actually had bigger hits, like "What Might Have Been" and "My Love," but their ode to Texas is the song that defines them. They'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.

Saturday, April 14

The Cliburn presents Hannah Lash
The works of composer and harpist Hannah Lash have been commissioned by numerous orchestras and string quartets, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and JACK Quartet, making her in demand at concert venues across the nation. Lash will be joined by multiple other musicians to perform four of her compositions at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Clay Walker in concert
Country singer Clay Walker came out of the gate red hot, scoring No. 1 hits with five out of his first six singles. With a start to his career like that, he didn't have much more to prove, but he still put out a string of top 10 albums. He's been quiet in recent years, with his last official release coming in 2010, but fans will still love hearing the hits at this concert at Billy Bob's Texas.

Sunday, April 15

Lone Star Film Society presents Sunday Cinema Series: Rosemary's Baby
With psychological horror films like Get Out and A Quiet Place showing that you don't need gore to conjure up a good scare, the Lone Star Film Society will screen one of the classics of the genre, Rosemary's Baby. Mia Farrow stars as an expectant mother who becomes paranoid over the safety of her unborn child. This screening at Four Day Weekend Theater is the first event of the year in Lone Star's Sunday Cinema Series.

Jacqueline Novak will perform How Embarrassing for Her at Amphibian Stage Productions, April 13-21.

Photo courtesy of Amphibian Stage Productions

Jacqueline Novak will perform How Embarrassing for Her at Amphibian Stage Productions, April 13-21.

event-planner

Movie Review

Music and Lady Gaga make for unusual Joker: Folie à Deux film sequel

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in Joker: Folie à Deux.

For a movie that was more about one man’s mental health condition than anything related to comic books, 2019’s Joker was shockingly successful, making over $1 billion worldwide and nabbing a Best Actor Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix and writer/director Todd Phillips are back with Joker: Folie à Deux(literally meaning "a madness of two"), a film that has some of the same themes but a story that could not feel more different.

After his murder spree in the first film, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) now calls Arkham Asylum home, where he is alternately tortured and favored by the guards, and revered by his fellow patients. Arthur plays nice for the most part, which leads one of the guards, Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson), to allow him to attend a music class in the minimum security ward of the facility, where he meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga).

The immediate connection between Arthur and Lee allows Arthur to indulge in more than a few fantasies, ones that manifest themselves in the film as musical sequences involving the two of them. As his fortunes change and he is forced to stand trial for his crimes, Arthur returns to the fantasies repeatedly, with Lee giving him a sense of hope and security that has been missing from his life.

The film, co-written by Scott Silver, features songs so often that the boundary between reality and fiction within the story is completely blurred. Some of the songs show Arthur, Lee, or both singing at Arkham, while others emulate old musicals by creating numbers on a set meant to look like the Murray Franklin talk show from the first film. It’s fair to wonder how much, if any, of it is real or just things that Arthur has conjured to comfort himself.

Most of the songs - “Good Morning,” “Get Happy,” and “That’s Entertainment,” among others - are cribbed from the classic movie musical era of the 1930s-1960s. Their titles and lyrics have surface-level relevance to the story being told, but it’s hard to say their meaning goes deeper than that. They are also so chopped up and delivered so often that it’s difficult to tell what kind of importance Phillips was trying to put on any one individual song.

While the music is the obvious big change, the more significant one is the film’s almost total lack of action. The focus on Arthur and Lee’s possible relationship and Arthur spending most of the film at Arkham leads to very few scenes of mayhem. In fact, hardly anything of substance happens until the film’s final act, and what does happen is less impactful than what fans of the first film may want.

Phoenix, just as he did in Joker, commits fully to the role, appearing to become gaunt once again and making sure the character is sufficiently disturbing. The arc makes him quieter and less annoying this time around, which may or may not disappoint some viewers. Lady Gaga is fine as the character otherwise known as Harley Quinn, although it’s interesting that she was likely hired for her singing ability and the film rarely lets her truly let loose.

If the nihilistic tones of Joker made it a surprise billion-dollar movie, it would be even more of a shocker if Joker: Folie à Deux made anywhere near that type of money. The Joker character has been approached in many different ways, but this is one of the oddest yet.

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Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4.

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