Weekend Event Planner

Drake, Kenny Chesney and Symphony speed painter top best weekend events in Houston

Memorial Day weekend in Houston promises to be memorable, with the return of a cultural diversity festival, two great theater productions, and big name concerts for country, rock and hip hop fans.

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

Thursday, May 21

Carnival Houston 2015
For the second year in a row, multiple locations around Houston will host Carnival Houston events, a festival to celebrate the life and cultural diversity of the Bayou City. Among the activities during the four-day festival, lasting through Sunday, will be a gala, a pageant, a paint party, a street parade and festival, an after party and a fun-day with picnic and games.

Alley Theatre presents Kneehigh's Tristan and Yseult
This is your last chance to see Britain’s acclaimed Kneehigh theater company make their Texas debut with this very contemporary retelling of the ancient Tristan and Yseult tale. Taking place at the Alley Theatre's temporary space at the University of Houston through Sunday, this innovative theatrical experience incorporates music, comedy, dance and moments of acrobatic flight to portray the emotional heights and depths of those loved and unloved.

Broadway at the Hobby Center presents Newsies
Based on the 1992 Disney movie musical flop, Newsies somehow found renewed life on Broadway, earning hosannas from both critics and audiences, and winning two Tony Awards for choreography and original score. The high-energy musical about the 1899 New York City newsboys strike runs at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday.

Friday, May 22

Comicpalooza
With more than 2,000 hours of programming at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Comicpalooza is the largest pop-culture event in Texas after SXSW. Among the stars at the four-day extravangaza, which ends on Memorial Day, are Jeremy Renner, Stan Lee, George Takei, Henry Winkler, Linda Blair, the cast of Gotham and several cast members from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

The Big Revival Tour with Kenny Chesney featuring Jake Owen and Chase Rice
Country superstar Kenny Chesney has had a lot of fun in Texas recently, receiving an honorary trophy at the 50th annual ACM Awards at AT&T Stadium in Arlington before returning there last weekend for a concert. That tour will make its way south to BBVA Compass Stadium, with Chesney supporting his 2014 album, The Big Revival. He'll be joined by Jake Owen and Chase Rice.

Houston Symphony Paintjam Concert Experience
Houston-based speed painter Dan Dunn joins the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall for the world premiere of The Paintjam Concert Experience. Dunn will choreograph his speed painting to the Houston Symphony’s performance of songs like Tyzik’s The Great Westerns Suite, "Bohemian Rhapsody," music from Gladiator, John Lennon’s "Imagine," selections from Ravel’s Mother Goose and more. There will be a live auction of the eight works Dunn is expected to paint during each show.

Saturday, May 23

Bay Day Festival
The annual Bay Day Festival celebrates the multiple uses of the Galveston Bay system. Among the highlights of the the one-day festival, taking place at Kemah Boardwalk, are bay-themed arts and crafts, live animal demonstrations and touch tanks, a scavenger hunt, live music and more.

Memorial Day Weekend in The Woodlands
Memorial Day weekend doesn't rival, say, the Fourth of July when it comes to patriotic celebrations, but you can still enjoy a good time at Town Green Park in The Woodlands with this event. On both Saturday and Sunday there will be concerts, fun activities, vendor booths and night-ending fireworks, all of it for free.

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators in concert with Fozzy
Axl Rose may have never been able to move on from Guns N' Roses, but guitarist Slash has had no such issues. He formed a side project even before the breakup of that iconic band, and has been working steadily since, including with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators on his latest album, World on Fire. He'll perform at the House of Blues with Fozzy as opening act.

Sunday, May 24

Drake in concert
Canadian rapper Drake has come a long way since the beginning of his music career, to the point that even his mixtapes can hit the top of the charts. He'll come back to the Houston area for the second time in less than a year, this time playing at Toyota Center in support of his 2015 mixtape, If You're Reading This It's Too Late.

The national tour of Newsies will be at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts through May 24.

Photo by Deen van Meer

The national tour of Newsies will be at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts through May 24.

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Movie Review

Glen Powell delivers sly laughs in satirical How to Make a Killing

Photo courtesy of A24

Glen Powell in How to Make a Killing.

Becoming a star in Hollywood and maintaining that stardom are two very difficult things to achieve, but Glen Powell has been adept at doing so over the past few years. A key supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick led to lead parts in films like Hit Man, Anyone But You, Twisters, and The Running Man. Powell is looking to keep his star power shining in the new dark comedy/thriller, How to Make a Killing.

He plays Beckett, an outcast member of the ultra-wealthy Redfellow clan. Struggling to get by in a menial job in New York City while still living in New Jersey, Beckett’s only smidgen of hope is that he remains an heir to the vast Redfellow fortune. The only trick? Every other remaining family member must die before he’ll see a dime of that money. When even that menial job goes away, Beckett indulges the fantasy of bumping off his familial competition.

Among those standing in his way are cousins Taylor (Raff Law), a finance bro, Noah (Zach Woods), a pretentious artist, and Steven (Topher Grace), a celebrity pastor; Uncle Warren (Bill Camp) and Aunt Cassandra (Bianca Amato); and grandfather Whitelaw (Ed Harris). Complicating matters, however, are an old childhood friend, Julia (Margaret Qualley), who starts asking more of Beckett than he can give; and new flame Ruth (Jessica Henwick), who happens to be dating Noah when he meets her.

Written and directed by John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal), the film is a tale of two halves. Narrated by Beckett in the form of telling his story to a prison chaplain, the story plays with audience expectations on multiple occasions. As Beckett ramps up to detailing exactly how he got started down the road toward being a serial killer, the film has a fun-if-macabre vibe.

Under normal circumstances Beckett would be someone to despise, but since he’s an underprivileged person who’s taking aim at people who (mostly) don’t seem to appreciate their good luck, it feels okay to cheer for him. This follows a recent trend in “eat the rich” films, one that’s been influenced by a turn against real-life billionaires. Ford plays heavily into the theme and it works for a good portion of the film.

However, things get a little murky in the second half of the movie. A few of the planned killings get less attention than others, making their — pardon the pun — execution less interesting/fun than the others. Also, Ford does a poor job of indicating just how much weight should be put on Beckett’s relationship with Julia, someone with whom he only has occasional interactions for the bulk of the film.

It’s difficult to know the exact right way to showcase Powell, but this film doesn’t seem to be the best fit. Whether it’s the odd hairstyle/wig he’s given, or the varying degrees of confidence his character shows, his performance is up and down. Qualley’s acting style is over-the-top, and she needed to dial it down in this particular role. Henwick and Camp are the grounding forces in the film, keeping the story somewhat tethered to reality while almost everyone else makes a meal of their scenes.

How to Make a Killing is serviceable entertainment that gives viewers a decent number of laughs and thrills. But Ford can’t find a way to make the story work all the way through, and a so-so performance by Powell keeps the film from rising above its mediocre station.

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How to Make a Killing opens in theaters on February 20.

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