weekend event planner

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

Flock to the Beastly Brunch at Houston Zoo this weekend.

Photo by Daniel Ortiz/Courtesy of Houston Zoo

It's Valentine's Day Weekend, and there will be many events couples can attend — while the single and lonesome stay home and check out the various OnlyFans pages they follow.

Cacao & Cardamom will have a chocolate and champagne tasting on Thursday and a hands-on chocolate workshop called A Date with Chocolate on Friday and Saturday.

The Station Theater will have not one, but two shows centered on love on Friday night. Also on Friday, Rice Village District will have a Valentine's Party on the Plaza, The Health Museum will throw the Love Bugs & Love Bites food event, and 14 Pews will screen The Princess Bride, that beloved love story. On Saturday, The Greater Houston Couples Ball will be a black-tie affair for the relationship folk, but you and that special someone can also check out '90s soul crooner Case for a special holiday show at Grooves of Houston.

And, of course, there is this:

Thursday, February 13

Inspire Film Festival at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
The ReelAbilities Film & Arts Festival isn't the only uplifting, certain-to-incite-tears-and-cheers film festival happening this weekend. This five-day, cinematic experience is dedicated to entertaining and inspiring audiences with films, speakers and events that celebrate the human spirit. This year's lineup will be centered around visionaries. More than 25 feature-length and short films highlighting local and international visionaries who inspire the world will be showcased. 5 pm.

Brian McLean at Duncan Recital Hall
Stop-motion animation house LAIKA has been turning out some interesting, animated flicks over the years, including Coraline, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and recent Oscar nominee/Golden Globe winner Missing Link. (Our personal favorite is the 2012 supernatural comedy ParaNorman — think The Sixth Sense, but more adorable.) Brian McLean, LAIKA's director of rapid prototype, will be here to talk about how 3D printing has helped stop-motion animation. 6:30 pm.

Friday, February 14

Texas Home & Garden Show at NRG Center
The 34th Annual Texas Home & Garden Show is the premier destination for the home and garden needs of all Houstonians — especially those who pride themselves on having domiciles that don't look nasty on the outside. This three-day show covers more than 100,000 square feet, with more than a 1,000 products and services on hand, including experts and innovative home ideas. 9 am.

Moonrise Kingdom at Landmark River Oaks
Since the trailer for the new Wes Anderson movie dropped this week, spend this V-Day weekend watching our pick for best Wes Anderson film of the past decade (sorry, Grand Budapest Hotel fans), which will be Landmark River Oaks's midnight movie this Friday and Saturday. Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, and longtime Anderson regular Bill Murray star in the 2012 coming-of-age dramedy as the residents of a New England island town who search for a pair of preteen lovebirds. 11:59 pm.

Saturday, February 15

Devon Gilfillian at Cactus Music
Have you listened to Black Hole Rainbow, the debut album from Nashville-based Devon Gilfillian? If not, you so should. It's an album full of heavy-duty R & B, soul and funk-rock we haven't stopped listening to since we heard about it. (Our favorite track is the let's-just-cut-our-losses-now breakup tune "Thank Me Later".) Of course, we're psyched that he'll be here doing a late-morning performance/meet-and-greet. So, get some coffee and doughnuts and enjoy some music from an emerging talent. 11 am.

Houston Print Crawl 2020
Contrary to popular belief, print is alive and well — and this inaugural event is out to make sure everyone knows that. Printmaking studios (Andis Applewhite Studio, Burning Bones Press, The Glassell Print Studio, etc.) will be opening their doors to the public, inviting attendees to explore the art of contemporary printmaking in its many different forms, including screenprinting, relief, intaglio, lithography, and more. And, at 5:30 pm, there will be an afterparty at the Foundation Room with artists and enthusiasts. Noon-5 pm.

Sunday, February 16

Beastly Brunch at Houston Zoo
It's time once again to get yourself a nice brunch and spend some time with the homies in the animal kingdom. This 11th annual feast will have guests feasting on bites and sipping brunch cocktails while celebrating the Houston Zoo's feathered friends. Guests will also hear from the zoo's bird team about their diverse family of avian species and find out how they can help local birds right in their own backyards. The event will go down in the Masihara Pavilion. 11 am.

The Sade Experience at Chapman & Kirby
Who doesn't love Sade? Even as we're writing this, we're listening to The Neptunes's remix of "By Your Side" — and we can't stop grooving in our chair. If you've always enjoyed the music of the smooth-soul group led by the gorgeously enigmatic Sade Adu, the event planner known as Channeling Sade is throwing a party/tribute, complete with a live band performing all their greatest hits. There will also be $1000 in giveaways, complimentary drinks for the first 100 guests and a chance to win a BMW for the weekend. 7 pm-midnight.

event-planner

Movie review

Will Arnett shines in Bradley Cooper’s divorce drama Is This Thing On?

Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald

Will Arnett in Is This Thing On?.

With 12 Oscar nominations in the past 12 years in multiple categories, Bradley Cooper has turned into not only an acclaimed actor, but also a touted filmmaker. Given that pedigree, it might be difficult to remember that he first gained recognition as a comedy star in movies like Wedding Crashers, Yes Man, and The Hangover series. For his latest directorial effort, he has married comedy with drama in Is This Thing On?.

Unlike the previous two films he directed, Cooper only has a supporting role, ceding the lead to Will Arnett. He plays Alex Novak, who, as the film begins, is starting the process of divorce from his wife of 20 years, Tess (Laura Dern). Forced to move to a depressing apartment in New York City and only getting limited time with his two kids, Alex finds the unexpected outlet of stand up comedy when he signs up for open mic night at the famous Comedy Cellar.

The film follows Alex as he continues to pursue comedy while still having to see Tess on a regular basis, thanks to a shared custody agreement and get-togethers with friends like Balls and Christine (Cooper and Andra Day) and Stephen and Geoffrey (real life couple Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle). While the comedy serves as a form of counseling for Alex, truly moving on proves more difficult than expected.

The film, co-written by Cooper with Arnett and Mark Chappell, is loosely based on the real-life story of British comedian John Bishop, so one of the biggest things they needed to get right was the comedy itself. Alex’s marital situation lends his comedy more of a confessional style than actual jokes, and his evolution in that space is done well. Shooting in the actual Comedy Cellar and populating the club with real comedians like Amy Sedaris, Jordan Jensen, Reggie Conquest, and more gives those scenes an extra dose of realism.

As if to underscore the personal and emotional nature of the story, Cooper and cinematographer Matthew Libatique make liberal use of closeups with handheld cameras. The camera is constantly moving around and often seems to be right in the actors’ faces, something that is most noticeable when Alex is performing. As if the stories Alex was telling weren’t intimate enough, having Arnett's entire face fill the frame forces the audience to pay attention to what his character is saying.

If there is something to knock about the film, it’s a lack of dramatic stakes. While there’s natural tension between Alex and Tess due to the divorce, it’s way less than in a movie like, say, Marriage Story. There’s also a sneaking suspicion that Cooper was just looking to have fun with the film, casting himself as the comic sidekick and working with good friends like Arnett and Hayes. If ever there was a good hang divorce movie, this is it.

Arnett rarely gets to be in movies, much less as the lead, but he ably embodies this somewhat dramatic part. It helps that he’s given a great scene partner like Dern, who knows when to dial her acting up or down for a particular situation. Cooper and Day are also good despite their story being slightly superfluous, and Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds as Alex’s parents lend the film some extra gravitas.

Is This Thing On? is a much different type of film from Cooper’s first two directorial efforts, A Star is Born and Maestro, and it’s nice to see the filmmaker offer something new. It has a relatable story for anyone who has ever been married while offering an element of uniqueness with someone discovering an undiscovered skill late in life.

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Is This Thing On? opens wide in theaters on January 9.