spring on the rooftop

Houston's Rooftop Cinema Club springs up with fun specialty screenings

Look for dog-friendly screenings, sing-along shows, and more this spring.

Photo by J. Thomas Ford

With spring weather seemingly around the corner, Houstonians are clamoring for their favorite outdoor activities. In Uptown, those activities include hitting the open-air Rooftop Cinema Club (1700 Post Oak Blvd. at BLVD Place), which has just revealed its highly anticipated spring programming.

This new spring season includes award winners in honor of the Oscars, fan-driven programming (People’s Choice), sing-along musicals, women in film (honoring Women’s History Month), a tribute to 4/20 (alright, alright, alright), and dog-friendly “Wooftop” screenings.

Tickets range from $17.50 to $25.25 — depending on the day of the week and choice of a lounge chair or Adirondack chair, with or without popcorn. Movies starting before 4:30 pm are open to all ages, while movies starting at and after 4:30 pm are 18 and up.

As always, the club will serve up its signature concessions, food, wine, beer, and canned cocktails for guests to purchase on-site. (No outside alcohol or food is permitted.)

Here is a rundown of the Rooftop specialty programming, courtesy of the club:

Award Winners
As a tribute to the Oscars, the venue will screen favorite award-winning films. Look for everything from visual effects winner, Jurassic Park; animated feature champ, Shrek; the film that finally crowned Martin Scorsese, The Departed; the movie that revealed Denzel Washington’s scary side, Training Day; the film that made fans feel like king and queen of the world, Titanic, and more.

Sing-Along
Viewers should prepare their pipes to belt out beloved tunes in Grease and The Greatest Showman. The venue’s Bluetooth headphones ensure guests get a chance to sing like no one’s listening.

Wooftop
Bring those fur babies to screenings of Jurassic Park on Sunday, March 6 and The Lion King on Sunday, March 27.

Women in Film
In honor of Women's History Month this March, the club is celebrating pioneering women in film. Expect beloved flicks from Penny Marshall (A League of Their Own), Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) and Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), witty writers Tina Fey (Mean Girls), and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) and power performer Jennifer Hudson (Respect).

People’s Choice: Spike Lee’s Birthday
To toast one of America’s most celebrated and respected filmmakers, the club is asking fans to vote on the Spike Lee joint to screen. Voting closes March 10; the winning film will be announced March 11.

Music Movies
This event celebrates National Record Store Day, which falls in April. Selections include the harmonizing Pitch Perfect, rap-fueled 8 Mile, Prince’s iconic Purple Rain, and the wild shenanigans in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

4/20
Come “relax” (and behave!) on April 20 with a double hit (had to) of the classic stoner comedies Dazed and Confused and The Big Lebowski. The Dude abides, indeed.

National Record Store Day
In a nod to f Record Store Day, the club is screening the ’90s vinyl-loving Empire Records, the John Cusack rom-com High Fidelity, and Cameron Crowe’s music-centered love story, Almost Famous.

People's Choice: National Superhero Day
Fans are invited to vote for their favorite caped (or non-caped) crusader in honor of National Superhero Day. Voting closes April 18; the winning film will be announced April 19.

For a full and daily lineup, tickets, and more, visit the Rooftop Cinema Club online.

openings movies

Movie Review

Cillian Murphy examines Ireland’s past in Small Things Like These

Photo by Enda Bowe/Lionsgate

Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These.

Last we saw actor Cillian Murphy, he was starring in the titular role of Oppenheimer, a role that would go on to earn him a Best Actor Oscar, not to mention many awards for the film itself. Instead of a big, flashy follow-up to build on that momentum, Murphy has gone in the opposite direction with the small and personal Small Things Like These.

Set in the 1980s in Murphy’s native Ireland, the film centers on Bill (Murphy), who owns a coal delivery company. One of his clients is the local convent, and during a delivery he witnesses a young pregnant woman being forced into the convent against her will by her mother. The scene triggers memories from his own childhood when he was raised by a single mother.

Every subsequent delivery to the convent has him questioning his own morality, although his taciturn nature doesn’t allow him to share his misgivings with his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh). With the Catholic Church an all-encompassing entity in Ireland, even if Bill wanted to help the girls who are trapped and mistreated at the convent, he’s not sure of any way to go about it.

Directed by Tim Mielants and written by Enda Walsh, the film has a slow build to it, so slow that it is a little difficult to ascertain the point of the story. The filmmakers go back and forth between scenes showing Bill as an adult and Bill as a child, and even though they each contain elements of trauma for the characters, the connection between the two timelines is not as strong as they might want it to be.

Even when it’s not part of a scene, the power of the church is the driving force of the film. Bill is clearly having a crisis of faith given his history and what he sees, but his wife seems to be willfully ignorant of any faults of the church and remains a true believer. The few segments that take the audience inside the convent are full of unforgiving nuns, with Sister Mary (Emily Watson) as their ultra-stern leader.

Given that this is an Irish film featuring all Irish actors, heavy accents accompany the majority of the dialogue, making it difficult to understand at times. While it helps with the verisimilitude of the story, anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with the Irish accent may find themselves a little lost and/or disengaged with the emotions of the story.

Murphy’s role in Oppenheimer and this one don’t share much in common save for the fact that he clearly put his whole self into each of them. This is a testament to Murphy’s skills and dedication that he cares as much about an inherently local story as he did about a world-changing one. Walsh and Watson are also great as two women who have a huge influence on Bill’s outlook on life.

Small Things Like These, based on the book by Claire Keegan, is not as huge a takedown of the Catholic Church as some other films, but it’s still a searing indictment of its arcane practices. It’s one made even more effective by using a smaller story of one man’s lonely fight against injustice.

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Small Things Like These opens in theaters on November 8.

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Movie Review

Cillian Murphy examines Ireland’s past in Small Things Like These