weekend event planner

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

Mamma Mia! promises feel-good, date night fun — set to ABBA.

Photo by Melissa Taylor

Expect a busy weekend: The rodeo kicks off this week and The Oscars will take place on Sunday. Seeing how the Academy has been making boneheaded decisions to make the show more appealing as of late, expect the whole thing to be a trainwreck. (If you want to see that trainwreck in a social setting, a'Bouzy will be having an Oscar viewing party.)

Last week, we incorrectly declared that National Margarita Day was last Friday. It is, in fact, this Friday. We know this because we are still getting emails about places that are having margarita specials on Friday, like Pistolero's and El Patio. There is also a National Margarita Day/Go Texan Day celebration that'll be at Eight Row Flint.

We apologize to those who went looking for margarita deals last week and couldn't find any — but still ordered a margarita anyway. With that, here's what's shaking up your weekend.

Thursday, February 21

Paint Your Pet Night at Great Heights Brewing Co.
Have you ever thought about painting your pet — and, by painting, we mean capturing his/her essence on canvas? Well, over at Great Heights, you'll have the chance to get an authentic pet portrait of your four-legged bestie. Send in your favorite photo of your pet and arrive to a pre-sketched, color-by-number-style canvas and a personalized color pallete ready for painting. While you're there, get your sip on and enjoy Great Heights's delightful selection of craft brews. 6:30 pm.

Friday, February 22

Kaleidoscope Houston Presents Houstonary 2019: Cyber Punk City
Houstonary, Kaleidoscope Houston's marquee annual event, returns for a fourth year of art, film, music, fashion, and just a general sense of fabulousness. The ticketed event will provide access to multi-sensory exhibits centered around the creative industry and will benefit a local, creative non-profit. And with this year's party being titled Cyber Punk City, expect some funky-but-futuristic stuff to pop off inside the Harrisburg Art Museum on this night. 7 pm.

Reel Forces at The MATCH
As part of the MUSIQA collective's "Traces" 2018-19 season, this evening of experimental film and live music examines the traces of humanity, memory, and conflict with Beyond Zero: 1914-1918, a film of rare WWI archival footage by auteur-director Bill Morrison, and scored for string quartet by Aleksandra Vrebalov. There will also be works by Marcus K. Maroney, Florent Ghys and the Texas premiere of the short Falling, curated by Houston Cinema Arts Society. 7:30 pm.

Theatre Under the Stars presents Mamma Mia!
It's been jokingly referred to as "your aunt's favorite Broadway musical (which has already spawned a summer-movie franchise)." The feel-good, funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother’s past back to the island they visited 20 years ago. The whole show is set to ABBA, which makes for singalong, date night fun. 8pm.

Saturday, February 23

B&B Butchers Restaurant Presents Mardi Gras Brunch
B&B Butchers and Restaurant is having a Mardi Gras extravaganza of their own on Saturday. It's a brunch, to be exact, in the upstairs dining room and rooftop patio. We're talking New Orleans-inspired brunch dishes (crawfish etouffee omelet, cajun boudin with poached eggs, biscuits and gravy, duck and andouille gumbo, etc.) a king cake by Rao's Bakery and specialty cocktails by Beam Suntory. And let's not forget about live music by Howl2GO Dueling Pianos, face painting and festive swag. 11 am-3 pm.

The West African Film Festival presents Mr. Gele: The Man. The Story. The Craft
The 2019 West African Film Festival started on Tuesday and is still going on at venues across the city. The fest wraps up on Saturday afternoon with a screening of Mr. Gele: The Man. The Story. The Craft. This documentary focuses on Hakeem Oluwasegun Olaleye, the celebrated, Houston-based, Nigerian Gele (African headwear) artist -- also known as Mr. Segun Gele. Mr. Gele himself will be in attendance and will do an Q & A and a head-wrap presentation. Noon-2 pm.

The Jones Family Singers at Cactus Music
There are eight people in The Jones Family Singers (five sisters, two brothers and their father), the Markham, Texas-based group that has been making a joyful noise in churches and venues for almost three decades. They've played in such hallowed halls as Lincoln Center (where they received a standing ovation) and Kennedy Center, as well as festivals like the Newport Folk Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival and others. So, for all you heathens who dig gospel music but don't like going to church, they'll be bringing church to Cactus. 3 pm.

Da Camera Presents Stop, Look Listen!
Stop, Look and Listen! is a series of free chamber music and jazz concerts presented in the world-renowned Menil Collection, featuring unconventional, interactive concert formats and fun, adventurous musical selections. On Saturday, Da Camera Young Artists and special guest percussionist Joe Desotelle will present the organization's annual family concert, which celebrates the season's theme: Time Future Time Past. They will be performing compositions from Mozart, Bartok and Chopin, among others. 3 pm.

Sunday, February 24

Filipino Food and Sparkling Wine Pop-Up at Camerata
Camerata is once again coming with that pop-up action! This time around, the team behind Aqui Restaurant will come with a Filipino meal featuring a modern take on Filipino classics, as well as a range of different sparkling wines from around the world. Guests will have the opportunity to try a range of different dishes, from tangy adobo to sweet Halo-Halo, created by James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef/first-generation Filipino American Jill Bartolome. 4-7 pm.

Fred Armisen at White Oak Music Hall
Most people know Fred Armisen as the former SNL cast member who poked fun at hipster culture for several years with Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein on the IFC sketch show Portlandia. These days, Armisen has been doing stand-up for a very niche crowd: musicians. Armisen, who is also a veteran drummer and guitarist, dropped a Netflix special last year titled Comedy for Drummers. Now, he's been on tour doing his latest, more inclusive show, Comedy for Musicians but Everyone is Welcome. 8 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

movies film