weekend event planner

Here are the top 9 things to do in Houston this weekend

Houston Family Arts Center's Third Annual Golf Tournament

Work on your swing and potentially win some serious swag.

Courtesy photo

Spring is here, which means the days will be sunnier (read: longer). So if you’re looking for something fun to do with your weekend days — and nights — we have you covered, with some great of indoor and outdoor activities.

Thursday, March 22

Jonathan’s The Rub celebrates its 10th anniversary
Jonathan’s The Rub will be taking a trip down memory lane. The restaurant is hosting a 10th-anniversary dinner where guests can dig into a throwback feast filled with original, past-menu faves. The dinner starts at 5:30 pm. Jonathan’s The Rub has also launched a five-week, fundraising effort benefiting the Houston Area Women’s Center through April, which is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month.

Houston Latino Film Festival at Talento Bilingue de Houston

Mexican filmmakers Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro have been snatching up Oscars left and right for their movies. (Earlier this month, del Toro won a bunch of Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water.) So, if you’re looking for more cinematic work from promising Latino filmmakers, the Houston Latino Film Festival starts up its third-annual festivities this weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, features, shorts and documentaries will be shown by filmmakers from the U.S., Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.

Friday, March 23

Take a weekend art walk at Bayou City Art Festival
It’s spring, which means the Art Colony Association will be throwing its annual Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park. (The Association also has a Bayou City Art Festival during the fall, held downtown.) For 47 years now, the three-day fest has been about showcasing fine art from all over the globe. And, for this year, there will 300 artists whose works you’ll be able to view and even purchase. It starts Friday at 10 am, and runs through Sunday.

Doomsday Wrestling LIVE at Market Square Park
If the downright-ludicrous antics that happen on WWE’s Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live shows don’t tickle you on a weekly basis (especially whenever wrestler-turned-movie star John Cena pops up and does his usual, smart-ass shtick), the comic wrestlers of Doomsday Wrestling LIVE are here to pile-drive some laughs out of you. This local crew of over-the-top bruisers have been making people of all ages get their chuckle on with their “comedy wrestling” since 2003, and they will be doing it with a free show at Market Square Park Friday, starting at 7 pm.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at Landmark River Oaks
Has there ever been a more suave-ass pair of gunslingers than Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? In 1969, the iconic, matinee idols teamed up with director George Roy Hill (who would direct them again several years later in The Sting) and screenwriter William Goldman (who won a Best Screenplay Oscar for his script) and created a funny, exciting, all-around classic Western based on the rise and fall of two real-life outlaws. It’ll be playing at midnight on Friday and Saturday at Landmark River Oaks.

Saturday, March 24

Get swinging at Precision Golf Academy
Precision Golf Academy is a brand-new spot offering up state-of-the-art technology for those who want their golf game to be super-tight. Saturday, the Academy will have its grand opening where there will be tasty bites and adult beverages, and everyone who attends will receive special, Early Bird Lesson rates. There will also be raffle prizes given out later that day, including a Tag Heuer Connected Modular smartwatch, valued at $2300. So, to paraphrase Bill Murray in Caddyshack, it’s got that going for them — which is nice. The opening starts at 1 pm. For more info, go here.

A Super Comedy Tour hits Stafford
Don’t let it be said that Muslims can’t be hilarious. From Aziz Ansari to Kumail Nanjiani (who was recently nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his semi-autobiographical comedy The Big Sick) to The Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj, Muslim comics are out here getting laughs and making moves. Perfect timing for this tour that gives you a heavy collection of Muslim comedians: The Super Muslim Comedy Tour. Among the comics performing: Aman Ali, Feraz Ozel, Travina Springer and Moses the Comic. It starts at 6 at Sugarland Ballroom.
For more info, go here.

The Lawn at Memorial City's big lawn party
The Lawn at Memorial City is a new, 7,000-square-foot greenspace that’ll be used to host a variety of events and festivals, along with being an open space where you can play lawn games like cornholing. Saturday, there will be a grand opening showcase, featuring music from The Voice finalist Stephanie Rice, local surf-rock band Phantom Royals and funky Houston outfit SoulDig!, which includes members from La Mafia. There will also be Art Cars on display from The Orange Show, face painting, street performers, food stations, and – maybe – cornholing. It starts at noon.

Sunday, March 25

Kite Festival at Hermann Park
You know what you don’t see a lot in the skies these days? Kites. Surely there was a point in your childhood where you went to the park, climbed up a hill in order to send your kite in the air, and navigate it while you ran all the way down. If you'd like to relive that moment again before you die, check out the fifth-annual, Hermann Park Conservancy Kite Festival. Kites will be soaring over Miller Hill and around the Jones Reflecting Pool. There will also be kite making, face painting, food trucks, and more. This event is free, and starts at 10 am.

Go fly a kite — with thousands of your neighbors.

Weekend events kites flying Hermann Park

Photo by Jared Kudabeck / JAEKAE

Go fly a kite — with thousands of your neighbors.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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