Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

There's a little bit of everything going on in and around Fort Worth this weekend. You can taste the food of a CultureMap Tastemaker Award winner, listen to a movie star talk about his career, laugh at a comedian with a burgeoning Netflix career, witness a classical music master debut in a new role, celebrate the return of the Dallas Cowboys, and more.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Monday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, September 7

TorTaco Tastemakers VIP Party
TorTaco was named CultureMap's "Best New Restaurant in Fort Worth" at the 2017 Tastemaker Awards, and they'll celebrate with this special VIP party. Tickets include your choice of two free drinks, samples of TorTaco's food, mezcal tastings, music by DJ xClusive, faux-tattoos by INK 817, giveaways, and more. TorTaco will donate $5 for every ticket sold to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

Sundance Square Plaza presents Bands On The Bricks
Sundance Square’s live music series, Bands on the Bricks, continues every Thursday night this fall, starting with a performance by Grady Spencer and The Work. The band will play for 90 minutes from the Plaza Stage in the heart of Sundance Square. Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome during the performances. Beverages will be available for purchase during the concerts, and restaurants will be open throughout the evening.

UT Arlington Maverick Speakers Series: Lou Diamond Phillips
Lou Diamond Phillips, a UTA alumnus, has enjoyed great success as an actor, director, writer, and producer across platforms, including feature films, television, and theater. Born in the Philippines, he was raised in Texas and graduated from UT Arlington in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in theater. Phillips will talk about his career and more in this special event at Texas Hall at UT Arlington.

Amphibian Stage Productions presents Baron Vaughn
Baron Vaughn is known for an act as energetic as it is intelligent, with finely crafted ramblings that shoot off into pop culture references. Vaughn is a series regular on Netflix’s Grace & Frankie and he's also the voice of "Tom Servo" in the new Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return. He'll perform at Amphibian Stage Productions every night through Saturday; each show will feature an opening act by a local Dallas-Fort Worth comedian.

Friday, September 8

Magnolia at the Modern presents From the Land of the Moon
In the latest in the Magnolia at the Modern series, From the Land to the Moon, Marion Cotillard stars as an idealistic woman trapped in a marriage of convenience in post-World War II France. The film, which is rated R and in French with English subtitles, will screen seven times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Near Southside Inc. presents Friday on the Green
Friday on the Green is a free monthly concert series at Magnolia Green Park that features live music, tasty food and drinks from Near Southside eateries, and the fun and relaxed atmosphere of a big neighborhood picnic. The penultimate event of the year will present performances by Summer Dean, Taylor Craig Mills, Jacob Furr, and Jake Paleschich.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Hadelich Plays Mendelssohn
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will showcase its new artistic partner, Augustin Hadelich, as he opens the 2017-2018 season with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto Op. 64, one of the repertoire’s greatest offerings. The concert, presented three times through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall, also will feature Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D Major and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Saturday, September 9

Fort Worth Art Dealers Association Fall Gallery Night
The name "Gallery Night" is really a misnomer, as some participating galleries are open for most of the day. But that just allows visitors more time to take in the visual arts and the community’s unique cultural richness as they stroll through participating galleries, museums, retail businesses, and area restaurants, enjoying the many artists featured during this community event.

Dallas Cowboys present Rally Days
Rally Days give fans an experience of a lifetime on Dallas Cowboys home game weekends. Before the Cowboys open the season against the New York Giants on Sunday, celebrate Dallas Cowboys football past and present at AT&T Stadium. The event includes self-guided tours, appearances by Dallas Cowboys alumni, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and mascot Rowdy, plus on-field games and activities, and more.

Casa Mañana presents Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Any dream will do in this vibrant, family-friendly musical, in which Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber dramatize the parable of the biblical saga of Joseph and his dazzling coat of many colors. When his jealous brothers sell him into slavery, Joseph endures a series of adventures that challenge his spirit and humanity. The musical will run through September 17 at Casa Mañana Theatre.

Sunday, September 10

Lone Star Film Society presents Sunday Cinema Series: Rushmore
Even though Bottle Rocket, which was filmed in Dallas, was Wes Anderson's debut film, Rushmore was the movie that made him a director to watch. Eight movies into his career, with a ninth coming in 2018, Anderson's unique aesthetic is beloved by his fans. Relive where it all began with this special screening by the Lone Star Film Society at Four Day Weekend Theater.

The first Dallas Cowboys Rally Day of the season will take place on September 9 at AT&T Stadium.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Cowboys

The first Dallas Cowboys Rally Day of the season will take place on September 9 at AT&T Stadium.

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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