weekend event planner

Here are the top 6 things to do in Houston this weekend

Jake Paul and Team 10 do whatever they do this weekend in Houston.

Courtesy photo

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means everyone will be taking extra advantage of that free Monday, pay their respects, and go on a white-wearing, beer-and-barbecue tear. Also this weekend, Comicpalooza brings in all the geeks and fanboys (after they get through watching Solo: A Star Wars Story, we’re assuming), as well as special guest stars such as John Cusack, Krysten Ritter, and current Spider-Man Tom Holland.

As always, there will be other interesting things happening these next few days. Here’s a list of some of them:

Thursday, May 24

Journey to the soulful ’60s with Miller Outdoor Theatre’s Dancin’ in the Street
Since Stevland Hardaway Morris (that’s Stevie Wonder, to you and me) celebrated his 68th birthday on Mother’s Day a couple of weeks back, the Miller Outdoor Theatre pays tribute by adding a new Stevie Wonder section to their 23rd annual Dancin’ in the Street… Motown & More Revue. Starting this Thursday and running through Sunday, local entertainers will be performing the classic numbers that Motown Records founder Berry Gordy recorded and released out of that small home in Detroit — a.k.a. Hitsville U.S.A. It starts at 8:15 pm.

Friday, May 25

The Houston Symphony gets really poppy with One-Hit Wonders
Don’t ever say the Houston Symphony doesn’t like to mix it up every now and then. All weekend long, the final program of the Symphony’s latest season will find them playing such memorable one-and-done pop classics like Dexys Midnight Runners’ “Come on Eileen,” A-ha’s “Take on Me,” Semisonic’s “Closing Time,” and so forth. (We wonder if they’ll do Carl Douglas’s “Kung Fu Fighting.”) Pink Martini vocalist Storm Large and Broadway star Matt Doyle will be the guest vocalists, while Steven Reineke handles the conducting. It starts at 8 pm. (7:30 pm. on Sunday.)

Saturday, May 26

Family fun at FUNomenal Family Festival
With a name like the FUNomenal Family Festival, we’re guessing the people involved (Academy Sports + Outdoors are the presenters) with this event is going all out to make sure families show up and have a good time. This event is packed to the gills with enjoyable, family-friendly things. At the Anheuser-Busch Stage alone, there will be performances from local dance groups all afternoon. There will also be rides, games, activities, and something called the Curious Game — a chess game that “comes to life with pomp, ceremony and silly characters.” It starts at 1 pm.

Martin Lawrence gets back to his Def Comedy Jam roots
It’s very likely that many of you may not know that, once upon a time, before he had his own Fox sitcom, teamed up with Will Smith for the Bad Boys movies and donned a fat suit for those Big Momma’s House movies, Martin Lawrence was the original host for HBO’s notoriously down-and-dirty, stand-up showcase Def Comedy Jam. These days, Lawrence is back introducing comics on the Lit AF Tour, which will be in Houston this weekend. Among the comics: Deon Cole, Adele Givens, Benji Brown, and former SNL player Jay Pharoah. It starts at 7:30 pm.

Sunday, May 27

Mongoose versus Cobra celebrates six years – with wrestling and swordfights!
How many of you know about the midtown Houston spot known as Mongoose versus Cobra? It’s a quite interesting name for a watering hole, isn’t it? Supposedly, the name is a metaphor for the battle between artisanal craft beers (mongoose), which this place usually offers, and bigger, brand-name beers (cobra). Anyway, this spot will be celebrating its sixth birthday celebration with drink specials, sports entertainment from Doomsday Wrestling, an actual swordfight courtesy of Sword to Sword, and music from Fiddle Witch & the Demons of Doom. It starts at 2 pm.

Jake Paul and his Team 10 crew perform — or whatever they do
We at CultureMap are slightly curious as to what Jake Paul will be doing at Revention Music Center this weekend. After all, YouTube celebrity Paul is mostly known for doing crazy, frat-humor videos with his crew, Team 10. (He’s also the younger brother of Internet celeb Logan Paul.) The show is scheduled to have live musical performances, exclusive merchandise, audience participation, special guests, games ,and challenges. Basically, expect teenage girls and their douchey, older brothers to be in the audience for this. It starts at 6 pm.

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Movie Review

Cheesiness undermines Whalefall's intense survival story

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.

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Whalefall is now playing in theaters.

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weekend event planner

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Cheesiness undermines Whalefall's intense survival story

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