weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Dive into Hotel Derek's Float & Flick party.

Hotel Derek/Facebook

The warmer temps are here, which means locals flock to poolside shindigs or chill, indoor events. This week features a splashy pool/movie bash, a pet-themed soiree, and a hip art market.

Here, then, are some fun events to heat up your weekend.

Thursday, May 30

Fierce & Fabulous at The Bellemore
Houston PetSet, Sotheby’s, and Al Ross Luxury Homes, along with the adoptable pets from ADORE Houston, will host this event at the prestigious Bellemore. Donation proceeds will benefit PetSet, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to ending the suffering and homelessness of companion animals in the Greater Houston area. Guests can look forward to complimentary appetizers, champagne, and a luxury Chopard showcase. 5-8 pm.

Float & Flick Summer Movie Series at Hotel Derek
Hotel Derek is once again starting up this monthly series, where films will be screened at the SPLASH pool for lounging moviegoers. The first movie up is the classic blockbuster Jaws, with Footloose, Apollo 13, and Mean Girls coming up in next few months. Tickets include complimentary gourmet popcorn, one complimentary signature drink, complimentary self-parking, and access to SPLASH starting at 7:30 pm for an after-work dip in the pool. 8:15 pm.

Friday, May 31

Keep Houston Rolling at Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
This event has bike-share program Houston BCycle throwing its first-ever fundraiser over at Saint Arnold's beer garden. This is a great opportunity to meet other BCycle riders and bask in the glory of car-free transit. There will also be free drink coupons for those who donate, BCycle T-shirts and hats for sale, Texas GOLD Sprint'em stationary cycling races, and a raffle. 5-11 pm.

Near Dark and Ginger Snaps at Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
This Graveyard Shift double feature shines a light on a pair of down-and-dirty, horror flicks that have both a cult following and critical acclaim. First off, we have a grungy, vampire Western from future Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow, with Lance Henriksen and the late Bill Paxton as part of a family of nomadic bloodsuckers. Next up is a made-in-Canada werewolf flick where the lives of two teenage sisters get even more complicated once one of them gets attacked by a wild creature. 9 pm.

Saturday, June 1

Heartmade Art Market at Main Street Square
This semi-annual, downtown art market will return to Main Street Square this weekend. Conceived and created by Tracy Manford Carlson of Tracy Carlson Photography and Sonja Fulbright of Crush Design Co., this fest will feature more than 75 local and regional artists selling wares ranging from apparel and jewelry to home goods and art, as well as music, food truck fare, a beer and wine garden, free cotton candy from Lush Puff, and more. 10 am to 5 pm.

Silent Disco Vibe at CityPlace
Well, this dance party sounds intriguing as hell. This event will have people wearing wireless, LED headphones with three distinct channels of music, including two live DJs, giving the audience the power to decide who and what to listen to during the course of the evening. Depending on the selection, the headphones will change colors, adding an element of social experiment to the scene. Headphone rentals are just $5 each. 7:30-10:30 pm.

Sunday, June 2

Sunday Supper at Kau Ba Saigon Restaurant & Bar
"If I won't eat it, I won't serve it" is the mantra of Nikki Tran, a chef who has been featured on such Netflix food shows as Ugly Delicious and Street Food and also runs the Kau Ba Saigon eatery in Montrose. Starting this weekend, Tran is launching a monthly dining series known as Sunday Supper. The menu will change monthly, but it will always feature some of Tran’s favorite dishes, nostalgic flavors and recipes from her own family. 5 pm.

Hannah Gadsby: Douglas at Jones Hall
Last year, Australian comic Hannah Gadsby rattled the international comedy world with her Netflix special Nanette. It's basically a trojan horse of a stand-up special, with Gadsby doing a half-hour of bone-dry, observational humor before sliding into a dead-serious, brutally honest monologue on her life as a lesbian. Even though she said she was dipping out comedy after Nanette, she returns with the new show Douglas, where she talks about everything she went through after Nanette. 7:30 pm.

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Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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weekend event planner

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New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

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