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    Bublé returns

    Michael Bublé charms and croons to adoring Toyota Center crowd

    Johnston Farrow
    Johnston Farrow
    Mar 27, 2019 | 7:40 am
    Michael Buble Houston Toyota Center 2019
    The earnest Bublé brought the hits and connected personally with the audience.
    Photo by Jamaal Ellis

    Toyota Center transformed into a 1950s Las Vegas casino as Canadian singer Michael Bublé took a packed audience on a time machine thrill ride on March 26.

    The performer was back on the touring circuit, promoting his new album, Love, after a three-year hiatus following his son Noah's liver cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. He looked rejuvenated and svelte in a dapper, blue designer suit and tie, his award-winning vocal prowess on full display.

    To many music fans, Bublé is too earnest and too much of a throwback to earn their attention, but he won over the crowd composed of a wide demographic almost immediately with a charm and charisma very few artists can claim. He started the night with the early hit, "Feeling Good" from 2005's It's Time, a James Bond theme if there ever was one, walking down a massive bandstand that harks back to the days of Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.

    A 32-piece orchestra, including strings, brass, piano, keyboards, and guitars brought a huge sound to the arena while an extended runway allowed the singer to get intimate with a large portion of the audience.

    Bublé referenced The Rat Pack early and often with a set comprised mostly of cover songs. But that's part of his schtick and what makes him so adored by audiences worldwide. At one point, he told the well-known story that he first got into the era of crooners through his grandfather, who loved big band, '60s swing, and a time when men drank hard, told off-color jokes, and could woo women with their silky-smooth vocals.

    Bublé performed his perfunctory hits, like "Haven't Met You Yet" from 2009's Crazy Love, "Everything" from 2007's Irresponsible, and "Nobody But Me" from the 2016 album of the same name, but the show really soared when he gave into his old school impulses, performing much-loved cover songs.

    No surprise that Sinatra got some love early on with "My Funny Valentine," which Bublé joked "was kind of a dark song." Dean Martin got time in the spotlight with "Sway (Que Sera)," allowing Bublé to show off his fluent Spanish (his wife is Argentinian model Luisana Lopilato)," and the classic "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You."

    Louis Armstrong featured on two-songs with "Lazy River" and "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You)." A three-song interlude in the middle of the arena that Bublé likened to his early days of playing seedy nightclubs included the Louis Prima smash "Just a Gigolo," and Chuck Berry's "You Can Never Tell," perhaps the best moment of the night.

    But the singer's major talent, other than his beautiful singing voice, was his ability to connect with the audience. He came with a Rolodex of jokes, talking about the sexiness of the Texas accent, recalling the zombie-like appearance of Floridian fans at his first tour stop in Sarasota, or sharing his love of Kenny Rogers — at one point busting out into an impromptu version of "The Gambler."

    He took the time to sign posters, greet kids in the audience, FaceTime with a young fan at home, and even sing a duet of "Me and Mrs. Jones" with a woman in the audience, who was absolutely, and in no way was a plant (she totally was).

    Very few performers can exude the charm to win over 15,000 concert-goers, including jaded music critics, but Bublé did so with panache and professionalism that left all those who came to see him very happy for his return to the stage.

    Setlist
    "Feeling Good"
    "Haven't Met You Yet"
    "My Funny Valentine"
    "I Only Have Eyes for You"
    "Sway (Quien Sera)"
    "Such a Night"
    "Lazy River"
    "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You)"
    "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You"
    "When You Fall in Love"
    "Love You Anymore"
    "Forever Now"
    "Home"
    "Buena Sera"
    "Just a Gigolo"
    "You Can Never Tell"
    "Nobody But Me"
    "Cry Me a River"

    Encore
    "Where or When"
    "Everything"
    "Always on My Mind"

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    Movie Review

    Cheesiness undermines Whalefall's intense survival story

    Alex Bentley
    Oct 16, 2026 | 1:01 pm
    Austin Abrams in Whalefall
    Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
    Austin Abrams in Whalefall.

    Austin Abrams has been a professional actor for 15 years, but the 30-year-old seems to just now be getting his due. After years of mostly supporting roles in films like Paper Towns, Brad’s Status, and Weapons, he has been charged with leading two films in 2026 where he’s largely acting by himself: First Resident Evil and now Whalefall.

    Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, who has returned home to California a year after the death of his hard-ass father, Mitt (Josh Brolin). The two had a tempestuous relationship, and while his mom (Elisabeth Shue) and sisters (Jane Levy and Emily Rudd) reminisce fondly about him, Jay finds it difficult to come up with good memories. The two did share a connection with the ocean, and Jay decides to honor him by going scuba diving.

    Ignoring warnings of whale activity in the area, Jay makes his way out into a notoriously dangerous part of the ocean near their home. Soon after he starts swimming, he encounters a sperm whale chasing after a giant squid. Jay inadvertently gets sucked into the enormous creature’s mouth and, ultimately, inside its body. Faced with a seemingly inescapable situation, Jay’s only hope lies in the lessons his father taught him.

    Directed by Brian Duffield and adapted by Duffield and Daniel Kraus from Kraus’ book of the same name, the film is at its best when it depicts Jay struggling to survive within the whale. The claustrophobic nature of the setting and the various obstacles (multiple contracting chambers, the squid, and more) he faces make every scene inside the whale feel as intense and cover-your-eyes scary as any great horror movie.

    Naturally, the entire movie can’t be about his survival efforts, and so the filmmakers toggle back and forth between Jay’s ordeal in the whale to memories of times with his father. Not so coincidentally, these remembrances come with subtle or overt wisdom from Mitt that would serve Jay well in his current situation. More often than not, these flashback scenes are so on-the-nose that they come off as cheesy instead of inspirational.

    It’s also difficult to derive any big emotions from the story other than revulsion at the way Jay’s body is brutalized while he’s inside the whale. None of the characters in the film receive a notable introduction to the audience before big events start happening. It’s next-to-impossible to be invested in their stories when their personalities are being revealed in bits and pieces throughout the movie.

    Abrams does well enough in bringing out the terror Jay feels in the whale and the sullenness/anger he has toward his father in other scenes. But whether it’s because his lines in the whale are hard to understand (he’s often talking around a scuba mouthpiece) or the disconnect the character has with father, there’s just something missing in his performance. Brolin’s performance is one-note, and Shue, Levy, Rudd, and John Ortiz don’t appear enough to make a big impact.

    With Kraus onboard as the co-writer of the film, it may be the case that Duffield was not given leeway to change the story of Whalefall too much. What might have worked in the book doesn’t seem to translate equally to the film, and while Jay’s nightmare in the whale is effective, the rest of his story doesn’t come across as successfully.

    ---

    Whalefall is now playing in theaters.

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