weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Brandi Redmond and Stephanie Hollman of Real Housewives of Dallas hit Houston.

The 37th Houston Auto Show has already started over at NRG Center, and will continue until Sunday. So, gearheads and auto junkies can spend the whole weekend going all up and down the place, looking at the exciting vehicles, getting behind the wheel, pretending to be in a Fast & Furious movie and maybe take a photo or two with some cars. Plus, you never know: You could be inspired to go out and purchase that electric car or sporty dream-mobile.

And, as always, there is this:

Thursday, January 23

Oh, I have to wash my hair at Midtown Arts and Theatre Center Houston (MATCH)
This seems interesting and peculiar. Frame Dance Productions explores real stories, feelings and battles of social anxiety in their latest creation, a two-night, evening-length performance for 10 women. This new work, a collaboration with singer/songwriter Alli Villines, cellist Patrick Moore and designer Ashley Horn, features new music by Frame Dance composers, including an electronic piece by Jake Sandridge, a piano piece by Paul Kerekes and a piece for cello and playback by Hannah Selin. 8 pm.

Weekly Dose of B.S. Live Tour at Wortham Theater Center
Stars of Real Housewives of Dallas, Brandi Redmond and Stephanie Hollman, will be in town doing a live recording of their podcast, Weekly Dose of B.S. (Their first-name initials are B and S — get it?) They will be joined by Trey Stewart, DJ Nixx, and other special guests as they intimately take their fans behind the scenes of the show and their crazy lives. 8 pm.

Friday, January 24

"Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present" opening reception at Moody Center for the Arts
This weekend, the Moody will present an exhibition that addresses the violent erasure of marginalized histories and the ways in which artists reinterpret familiar themes through contemporary, Afrocentric lenses. Featured artists include Sammy Baloji, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Omar Victor Diop, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Zanele Muholi, Robin Rhode, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Mary Sibande, and Pascale Marthine Tayou. Runs through May 16. 6 pm.

Jim Jefferies at Wortham Theater Center
Australian-born, American-based comic Jim Jefferies has just got through three seasons of his Comedy Cental show The Jim Jefferies Show, a weekly, news-satire program which practically also served as an audition reel for Jefferies just in case Trevor Noah decided to leave The Daily Show and the network needed another foreign comedian to step in. But Jefferies is back on tour, doing what he does best: hilariously offending audiences with his proudly off-color, incessantly button-pushing brand of stand-up comedy. 7:30 pm.

Saturday, January 25

Houston Audubon Owl Prowl at Houston Audubon Raptor and Education Center
Do you give a hoot about owls? Did you ever go in the woods as a kid, hoping to find an owl and feed it some Tootsie Roll pops? Well, take in this fun event going on at Houston Audubon. The education staff will present a fun and educational presentation about local owls. Guests can meet three live rehabilitated owls in the Bayou Barn and take a hike through the woods in search of wild owls. And remember, as a wise, ol' owl used to say: give a hoot, don't pollute! 6 pm.

The Farewell at 14 Pews
Are we the only ones that are upset that Lulu Wang's wonderful family dramedy didn't get nominated for anything for this year's Oscars? It got nothing: no Best Picture, no Best Adapted Screenplay, not even a Best Actress nomination for Awkwafina, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) for her lead performance. Well, whatever. It's still one of the best movies that came out last year, and 14 Pews will give you two chances to watch it on the big screen this weekend. 7 pm (5 pm Sunday).

Sunday, January 26

Alley All New Festival at Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre's Alley All New Festival 2020 will be closing things out on Sunday with several must-sees. It all starts with an early-draft preview of a new play by Houston playwright Arthur M. Jolly (you gotta call for standby tickets), followed by a morning reading of Pictures from Home, the new play by Sharr White. The final workshop performance of Theresa Rebeck's Enlightened goes down at 2:30, and Katie Bender's Survivors, An Alamo Play does its last workshop performance at 7:30. 10 am.

Film Club: Mulholland Drive at Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
David Lynch celebrated his 74th birthday on Monday the only way he knew how: by dropping a short film he made years ago, where Lynch interrogates a talking monkey suspected of murder, on Netflix. Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra will be paying tribute to the man and his weird, cinematic legacy by screening his acclaimed, 2001 mystery, with Naomi Watts in her breakthrough role as an actress who gets in a whole lot of drama when she falls for a mysterious dame (Laura Elena Harring). 3 pm.

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Movie Review

Tom Cruise goes all out in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

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Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Over the course of 30 years and eight films, the Mission: Impossible series has proven to be the most reliable of any action movie franchise. Not all of them are equally good, but with Tom Cruise in the lead as Ethan Hunt, they can be counted on for at least a couple of mind-blowing stunt sequences per film, enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has the feel of being the last film in the series, and not just because the 62-year-old Cruise is getting up there in age. Following up closely on the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (Part Two changed to The Final Reckoning for unknown reasons), the film has Hunt trying to stop an A.I. villain known as The Entity from taking over the world’s collective stash of nuclear weapons.

To do so, Hunt and his cobbled-together team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) — must hopscotch around the world, tracking villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and trying to figure out a way to get The Entity’s source code, which is located on a sunken Russian submarine. Oh, and they also have to evade capture by a disgruntled U.S. government, led by now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett).

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-written by Erik Jendresen, the film might just be the most convoluted one in the series so far. The filmmakers layer on tons of exposition, with lots of flashbacks to previous events in the series to explicate the events of the present, as well as providing unexpected connections to previous films. The plan for stopping The Entity and the references to the past are so dense that the first half of the film is relatively boring.

Things pick up in the final 90 minutes of the three-hour film, mostly because that’s when the majority of the action takes place. More than other entries in the series, the film considers the geopolitical implications of Hunt’s actions, and he has to negotiate with a variety of high-powered people to do what he deems best. While his efforts are somewhat preposterous, even by the standards of the series, they lead to a bunch of fun sequences that provide levity among the world-changing drama.

Ultimately, what makes the film succeed are its action scenes. Cruise has done stunts on planes/helicopters before in the series, but what he does during a biplane sequence toward the end of the film is almost beyond belief. Yes, he’s attached to the plane with harnesses that are digitally erased, but he’s still doing it hundreds of feet in the air at great bodily risk considering. While the series has always featured spectacular stunt sequences, this one deserves to be near the top of the list.

The flashbacks to scenes from throughout the series underscore just how much Cruise has changed in the past 30 years, but also emphasize how amazing it is that he’s still willing to sacrifice his body as much as does to make these films. No other actor goes as far as he does to entertain the masses, and the events of the story even give him opportunities to show off his dramatic acting skills.

The supporting cast is more packed than usual, and all of them enhance the film. In addition to Hunt’s team, the President has a group of advisers that includes actors like Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, and Janet McTeer. Other recognizable faces like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Trammell Tillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) show up for impactful roles.

Whether or not this is the last film in the current incarnation of the series, The Final Reckoning has a lot to offer longtime fans, with action set pieces that remains some of the best Hollywood has to offer. The story may be completely baffling, but with Cruise and other appealing actors leading the way, there’s more than enough great entertainment to go around.

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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.

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