Weekend event planner

Here are the top 10 things to do in Houston this weekend

It’s never too early to start planning for the weekend. We’ve rounded up some of the best entertainment, arts and food events in town, including festivals, concerts and pop-up dinners. Read on for our guide on what to do this weekend in Houston.

For more options, check out the full CultureMap Events Calendar.

Well-wishes
Thursday, March 23: Owner of music management and promotions company, The Convoy Group, Mark C. Austin celebrates turning 40 with a blowout birthday-bash-slash-charity-concert at The Heights Theater (6 pm-11:30 pm; tickets: $14-$59 per person). Proceeds from the event, which boasts an entertainment lineup of mega-talent from The Tontons to Say Girl Say, benefit nonprofit Donate Life Texas, which supports organ donation.
339 W. 19th St.; 214-272-8346

Rockin' rodeo
Thursday, March 23: RodeoHouston welcomes Blink-182 to NRG Stadium (6:45 pm; tickets: $18-$300 per person). The band rose to fame in the '90s with witty punk-rock tunes like "She’s Out of Her Mind,” "All the Small Things,” "What’s My Age Again?, “Bored to Death,” and “I Miss You.”
NRG Stadium, 8400 Kirby Dr.; 832-667-1400

Three-day art fest
Friday, March 24-Sunday, March 26: Bayou City Art Festival at Memorial Park offers three days of fun (10 am-6 pm; tickets: $12-$15 per person; $5 per child ages 6-12). Shop works from over 300 global artists including headliner Amanda Bennett, a mixed media artist from New Orleans. The festival, which benefits several local nonprofits including Fresh Arts, Lawndale Art Center, and The Arc of Greater Houston, also boasts food truck fare (think Cousins Maine Lobster and The Burger Joint), activities for the kids, and more.
6501 Memorial Dr.; 713-521-0133

Country star
Friday, March 24: Country singer-songwriter Dierks Bentley performs at RodeoHouston (6:45 pm; tickets: $18-$300 per person). Named the Academy of Country Music’s Best New Artist in 2005 and inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2008, Bentley’s hit songs include “Drunk on a Plane,” “Black,” “I Hold On,” “Different for Girls,” and “Somewhere on a Beach.”
NRG Stadium, 8400 Kirby Dr.; 832-667-1400

Art galore— and more
Saturday, March 25: From painters of all mediums and sewistas to vintage clothing vendors and candle makers, there’s something for everyone at the Art-Is-An Outdoor Market at the Energy Corridor’s Republic Square (11 am-6 pm; free to enter). What’s more, you can also expect a kid’s craft area, plus eats, beer and wine from Foodies Gourmet, Rouge Wine Bar and Le Mistral.
Republic Square, 13501 Katy Fwy; 713-777-7368

Paisley power
Saturday, March 25: Brad Paisley makes his eleventh appearance at RodeoHouston (3:45 pm; tickets: $16 per person, standing room only). Throughout his career, Paisley has had a number of hit songs including “Today,” “Without a Fight,” “She’s Everything,” “Then,” “Whiskey Lullaby,” “Alcohol,” and “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song).”
NRG Stadium, 8400 Kirby Dr.; 832-667-1400

Go fly a kite
Sunday, March 26: Bring your own kite or buy one there and cut loose at the fourth annual Hermann Park Conservancy Kite Festival at Miller Hill/ Jones Reflection Pool near Miller Outdoor Theatre (10 am-5 pm; tickets: free). Kite making lessons, face painting, and food trucks are also part of the program.
6100 Fannin St.; 713-524-5876

More rodeo fun
Sunday, March 26: We can’t get enough of RodeoHouston or the Zac Brown Band, scheduled to perform onstage at NRG Stadium (3:45 pm; tickets: $16 per person, standing room only) in the last performance in this season's lineup. Hit singles from the Grammy Award-winning country stars include “Chicken Fried,” “Colder Weather,” “Toes,” “Loving You Easy,” “Whatever It Is,” and “Homegrown.”
NRG Stadium, 8400 Kirby Dr.; 832-667-1400

Sunday funday
Sunday, March 26: It’s showtime at Captain Foxheart's Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge (6 pm-2 am). The downtown cocktail bar celebrates four years of business with drink specials inspired by cult classic TV show, Twin Peaks.
308 Main St.; 718-387-6962

Pop-up supper
Sunday, March 26: CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Rising Star Chef of the Year finalist Kenten Marin launches his BIFI (by industry for industry) pop-up series this Sunday at Southern Goods restaurant (5:45 pm-8:30 pm). For only $20, score five plates of delectable Southern fare. Hurry and get your tickets now, before they sell out.
632 W 19th St.; 346-980-8152

Bayou City Art Festival at Memorial Park offers three days of festival fun.

Houston, weekend events calendar, March 2017, bayou city art fest

Courtesy photo

Bayou City Art Festival at Memorial Park offers three days of festival fun.

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Movie Review

New comedy I Want Your Sex saddles an all-star cast with a dull story

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in I Want Your Sex.

Writer/director Gregg Araki has been making provocative movies for nearly 40 years, releasing his debut — Three Bewildered People in the Night — in 1987. Most of them have had plotlines that revolved around sex in one way or another, and for his latest — his first film in 12 years — he’s putting it right there in the title, I Want Your Sex.

Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is an aimless twenty-something who can’t even afford the rent for his apartment with best friend, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders). Thankfully, he finds a job at the gallery of artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), who is open with her sexuality both in her artwork and in her day-to-day life. That soon includes Elliot, whom she convinces to enter into a dominant-submissive relationship with her, with sessions taking place both at work and her home.

Elliot, who’s in a going-nowhere coupling with Minerva (Charli XCX), is more than willing to participate, both because it lets him feel something he doesn’t get normally and because Erika offers a perspective on sex that’s much different from people of his generation. But as he gets in deeper with her, he starts to lose a sense of himself, going down a path in which he finds himself talking to police detectives Zem (Johnny Knoxville) and Zola (Margaret Cho).

Araki does his level best to make I Want Your Sex into a broad comedy, and early on it seems as if he might succeed. The deadpan way that sexual objects appear in the film (a penis-shaped rug in Elliot and Apple’s apartment, a vagina artwork with chewed gum as the medium) make for amusing sight gags. He also makes Elliot the bewildered other in multiple twosomes, with Minerva being the funniest, as she’s way more interested in studying than his ham-fisted attempts at sex.

It’s clear that Araki wants the film to be a commentary on the generational differences about sex, but he fumbles his own idea. It starts with an on-the-nose conversation between Erika and Elliot, and continues with the various dalliances, which seem to be more about making Elliot look and feel ridiculous than giving true insight. Their encounters certainly open his mind about what sex can be, but their one-note nature makes them repetitive and frankly boring, odd considering the acts in which the two engage.

The uninspired storytelling makes the 90-minute film drag way more than it should. Araki includes a few other characters to try to vary the tone of the film, including gallery workers Zap (Mason Gooding) and Vikktor (Daveed Diggs), but their early promise yields little results. The framing device of Elliot’s interview with the detectives never works, especially because Araki completely neuters the personalities of Cho and Knoxville for seemingly no good reason.

The cast as a whole goes to waste. Hoffman is showing the promise of his late father (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and even though he’s appealing here, the material pulls him down. Wilde just made her own provocative movie about sex (The Invite), and this one pales in comparison despite her heightened performance. Wonders, Charli XCX, and Gooding are all young stars who deserve to be showcased much better than they are in this film.

A film called I Want Your Sex is announcing itself as daring and alluring, but this film contains almost none of those qualities. Instead, it’s a slog that only occasionally has something interesting to show or say, mostly relying on the power of its actors to hold viewers’ attention — and failing at even that.

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I Want Your Sex is now playing in select theaters.

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Movie Review

New comedy I Want Your Sex saddles an all-star cast with a dull story