The Arthropologist

Here's the perfect Mother's Day gift for any mom: Treat her to an "artful" event

YHYQArt.com
Artists of the Houston Ballet performing Stanton Welch's tribute to C.C. Conner,The Gentlemen
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Rienzi, the house museum for European decorative arts at the MFAH situated onfour acres of wooded gardens in the historic River Oaks neighborhood, makes aperfect Mother's Day outing.
Photo by Chris Conyers
Jacquelyne Jay Boe, Kristen Frankiewicz and Brit Wallis in Frame DanceProductions' CONTEXT
Kelly Myernick and artists of the Houston Ballet in Giselle, choreographed byMarius Petipa
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Guy Roberts as Richard III in Main Street Theater and the Prague ShakespeareFestival presentation of Shakespeare’s Richard III
Ron Nagle, Cardworthy, 2001, earthenware, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, gift of Garth Clark and Mark DelVecchio
Photo courtesy © Ron Nagle
Jasper Johns, Two Flags, 1980, lithograph

Sons and daughters, put down that corsage. Forget brunch reservations. Let's take la momma to see some art. There's a bevy of artful adventures for a mom to love this weekend. Trust me, I have dragged my mom to more shows than any mom should ever have to go to. Bless you mom!

It is a nice idea, though, to match the mom with the art. Here goes!

For the socially responsible mom who likes to get fancy and loves variety, take her to Pink Ribbons Project's Pink at the Brown, Thursday at the Wortham. Chances are, she knows many friends whose lives has been touched by breast cancer, and she will welcome the opportunity to further breast cancer research. Plus, the line-up includes just about every major downtown arts organization.

Highlights include Da Camera of Houston’s own artistic and general director, Sarah Rothenberg, performing a piano solo, Houston Ballet offers a pas deux from Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly, performed by Simon Ball and Amy Fote, along with Welch's The Gentlemen, a tribute to retired general manager and Pink at the Brown honoree CC Conner, and Houston Symphony will perform a Gershwin Brass Quintet.

Most exciting for this mom and daughter (me!), is a rare performance by Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, in a duet from his masterwork, The Meadow.

For alt mom

For the alt mom, head to Frame Dance Production's Context at Winter Street Studios, Friday through Sunday. Lydia Hance and her group of framers combine live performance and film in a gallery setting. The idea is to play with the boundary between performer and audience, and let the elements of performance, photography and film bleed into each other. You can get to know the framers on their blog before you go.

Photography by Sil Azevedo and Lorie Garcia and music by Charles Halka add to the alty mix.

For traditional mom

So if your mom is a hard core traditionalsist, not a problem. Take her to see Houston Ballet's production of Giselle at Miller Outdoor Theatre, Friday through Sunday. There's nothing quite like ballet in the great outdoors. Since almost the entire ballet takes place in a village square or the woods, you will feel part of the actions.

With superstar ballerinas Danielle Rowe and Karina Gonzalez dancing the role of Giselle, you can't but win mom points. The price is right, too: it's free.

For teacher mom, political mom, cross-era mom, Goth mom & gansta mom

Is your mom an English teacher? Then Richard III at Main Street Theater (MST) is your best choice. With Guy Roberts as devilish Richard and in the director's role, along with a cast that includes the executive artistic director of MST as Queen Margaret, it's a must see for many a mom type.

Politico mom will get a kick out of the TV ads promising better castles if you make Richard III king. Cross-era fashion mom will appreciate Margaret Crowley's mixed period costume mash-up. Goth mom and gangsta bard mom will both go for the show's apocalyptic spin. The show runs through Sunday at their Chelsea Market location.

For crafty mom

Got a crafty mom? Do you want her to expand her idea of craft? The MFAH's Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, is a knockout show. With some160 objects from such famous artists such as Kenjiro Kawai, Jean-Pierre Laroque, Adrian Saxe, Peter Voulkos, Anthony Caro, Lucio Fontana, Claes Oldenburg, and Grayson Perry, it has a blockbuster feel. She will be impressed and think the investment on your college education was well worth it.

For super-artsy mom

Already super-artsy mom from New York will enjoy a swing by Hiram Butler Gallery to gaze on works by Jasper Johns, Robert Robert Rauschenberg, Sol LeWitt and James Turrell.

For tasteful mom

For the mom with equisite taste, like my mom, plan a visit to the MFAH's Rienzi for a special Mother’s Day performance by Early Music Southwest, featuring the “historic piano,” or one of their Twilight Tours, Thursdays in May. Stroll about the Rienzi estate, art collection, and gardens with wine and lite bites in hand, while being serenaded by harpist Meghan Elizabeth Caulkett.

Docents stationed throughout the house provide juicy details about the collection. Elegant, refined, classy, just like your mom.

And last, but not least, for the bossy mom

Because I'm in the "bossy mom" category, I select our artful adventure, a Mother's Day tradition at chez Wozny. As we are a photo lovin' family, we plan to visit Utopia/Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage at the MFAH, then off to It is what it is. Or is it? and Perspectives 178: Cineplex at the CAMH.

Whatever you decide to do with your mom on Mother's Day weekend, do spend some time with her, it's precious and fleeting.

Here's a taste of Houston Ballet's Giselle.

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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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