weekend event planner

Here are the top 9 things to do in Houston this weekend

Houston Family Arts Center's Third Annual Golf Tournament

Work on your swing and potentially win some serious swag.

Courtesy photo

Spring is here, which means the days will be sunnier (read: longer). So if you’re looking for something fun to do with your weekend days — and nights — we have you covered, with some great of indoor and outdoor activities.

Thursday, March 22

Jonathan’s The Rub celebrates its 10th anniversary
Jonathan’s The Rub will be taking a trip down memory lane. The restaurant is hosting a 10th-anniversary dinner where guests can dig into a throwback feast filled with original, past-menu faves. The dinner starts at 5:30 pm. Jonathan’s The Rub has also launched a five-week, fundraising effort benefiting the Houston Area Women’s Center through April, which is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month.

Houston Latino Film Festival at Talento Bilingue de Houston

Mexican filmmakers Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro have been snatching up Oscars left and right for their movies. (Earlier this month, del Toro won a bunch of Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water.) So, if you’re looking for more cinematic work from promising Latino filmmakers, the Houston Latino Film Festival starts up its third-annual festivities this weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, features, shorts and documentaries will be shown by filmmakers from the U.S., Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.

Friday, March 23

Take a weekend art walk at Bayou City Art Festival
It’s spring, which means the Art Colony Association will be throwing its annual Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park. (The Association also has a Bayou City Art Festival during the fall, held downtown.) For 47 years now, the three-day fest has been about showcasing fine art from all over the globe. And, for this year, there will 300 artists whose works you’ll be able to view and even purchase. It starts Friday at 10 am, and runs through Sunday.

Doomsday Wrestling LIVE at Market Square Park
If the downright-ludicrous antics that happen on WWE’s Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live shows don’t tickle you on a weekly basis (especially whenever wrestler-turned-movie star John Cena pops up and does his usual, smart-ass shtick), the comic wrestlers of Doomsday Wrestling LIVE are here to pile-drive some laughs out of you. This local crew of over-the-top bruisers have been making people of all ages get their chuckle on with their “comedy wrestling” since 2003, and they will be doing it with a free show at Market Square Park Friday, starting at 7 pm.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at Landmark River Oaks
Has there ever been a more suave-ass pair of gunslingers than Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? In 1969, the iconic, matinee idols teamed up with director George Roy Hill (who would direct them again several years later in The Sting) and screenwriter William Goldman (who won a Best Screenplay Oscar for his script) and created a funny, exciting, all-around classic Western based on the rise and fall of two real-life outlaws. It’ll be playing at midnight on Friday and Saturday at Landmark River Oaks.

Saturday, March 24

Get swinging at Precision Golf Academy
Precision Golf Academy is a brand-new spot offering up state-of-the-art technology for those who want their golf game to be super-tight. Saturday, the Academy will have its grand opening where there will be tasty bites and adult beverages, and everyone who attends will receive special, Early Bird Lesson rates. There will also be raffle prizes given out later that day, including a Tag Heuer Connected Modular smartwatch, valued at $2300. So, to paraphrase Bill Murray in Caddyshack, it’s got that going for them — which is nice. The opening starts at 1 pm. For more info, go here.

A Super Comedy Tour hits Stafford
Don’t let it be said that Muslims can’t be hilarious. From Aziz Ansari to Kumail Nanjiani (who was recently nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his semi-autobiographical comedy The Big Sick) to The Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj, Muslim comics are out here getting laughs and making moves. Perfect timing for this tour that gives you a heavy collection of Muslim comedians: The Super Muslim Comedy Tour. Among the comics performing: Aman Ali, Feraz Ozel, Travina Springer and Moses the Comic. It starts at 6 at Sugarland Ballroom.
For more info, go here.

The Lawn at Memorial City's big lawn party
The Lawn at Memorial City is a new, 7,000-square-foot greenspace that’ll be used to host a variety of events and festivals, along with being an open space where you can play lawn games like cornholing. Saturday, there will be a grand opening showcase, featuring music from The Voice finalist Stephanie Rice, local surf-rock band Phantom Royals and funky Houston outfit SoulDig!, which includes members from La Mafia. There will also be Art Cars on display from The Orange Show, face painting, street performers, food stations, and – maybe – cornholing. It starts at noon.

Sunday, March 25

Kite Festival at Hermann Park
You know what you don’t see a lot in the skies these days? Kites. Surely there was a point in your childhood where you went to the park, climbed up a hill in order to send your kite in the air, and navigate it while you ran all the way down. If you'd like to relive that moment again before you die, check out the fifth-annual, Hermann Park Conservancy Kite Festival. Kites will be soaring over Miller Hill and around the Jones Reflecting Pool. There will also be kite making, face painting, food trucks, and more. This event is free, and starts at 10 am.

Work on your swing and potentially win some serious swag.

Courtesy photo

Work on your swing and potentially win some serious swag.

event-planner

Movie Review

New horror movie Sinners sings the blues with twin turn from Michael B. Jordan

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films — Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.

Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.

They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.

Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police. How Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.

Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.

It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it winds up being the least interesting part of the story.

Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.

Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.

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Sinners opens in theaters on April 18.

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