weekend event planner

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

Stranger Things are happening at Present Company.

This weekend finds myriad events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. After celebrating history, celebrate some cute dogs.

The Houston World Series of Dog Shows has already began over at NRG Center. All this weekend, dog lovers can catch more than 30 independent breed specialty competitions, get hands-on experience with more than 110 breeds and discuss their advantages and disadvantages with breed experts. It's gonna be a shaggy good time.

And, of course, there are plenty of other fun events all over town:

Thursday, July 18

Celeste Barber at House of Blues
Australian comic actress Celeste Barber has gained a very massive Instagram following (we're talking 5.8 million followers here), thanks to her recreating sexy, usually scantily clad photos from such celebs as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, and Miley Cyrus. She's now built a one-woman show around being Instagram-famous, and she's touring it around the country. She talks about her most famous photos as well as the celebs, stalkers, and mean commenters she's had to deal with. 6:30 pm.

Stranger Things '80s and '90s Party at Present Company
There's no doubt in our minds that a lot of you have been at the house, binge-watching the latest season of Stranger Things. If you're a big fan of Eleven and all those other kids who stumble upon the weird goings-on in their Indiana hometown, RTB Event Group has a nice, little theme party for you. We're talking props and decorations, staff members dressing like the characters, and a giant Demogorgon that spits. DJs Dayta and FREDster will provide the synth-pop. 9 pm to 2 am.

Friday, July 19

Fresh Arts Summit at Silver Street Studios
Fresh Arts will host Houston’s first artist summit, which was created to provide artists with essential business skills in arts marketing and self-promotion, financial management and fundraising, copyrights & legal resources and other topics related to arts entrepreneurship. Highlights of the Summit include an attendee reception, networking opportunities, multimedia presentations, hands-on workshops and roundtable discussions. Noon.

Palais Royal presents Juice Box Drive with No Kid Hungry and Kids’ Meals
Are we the only ones who think back to our childhood whenever somebody brings up Palais Royal in Meyerland? Remember all those Saturday afternoons with your momma, trying to while away the hours as she tried on one outfit after another? Kids and their moms can take part in a juice box drive there, to help ensure a juice box is delivered with each nutritious meal Kids’ Meals Inc. provides to hungry children in Houston. Houston Texans Cheerleaders will be around to meet-and-greet. 10 am.

Saturday, July 20

Houston Brunch Festival at Isles Eatery and Rum Bar
There's a brunch festival happening this week — and it's the greatest news we've heard in a long time! C'mon, who doesn't love brunch? This fest will feature some of the best restaurants in the brunch game serving up tasting size portions of the brunch items they do best. They will also have the brunch beverages people love — Bloody Marys, Mimosas, beer, and wine. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Houston Museum of African American Culture. 11 am.

Long Day's Journey Into Night at MFAH
As far as trippy movie experiences go, this neo-noir from Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan is certainly one of the most surreal movies to come out this year. The first half tells the story of an embittered man trying to track down the manipulative woman he fell hard for through flashbacks and flash-forwards. The second half has the man experiencing the most accurate representation of a dream that’s ever been put on film. It's an amazing, mind-bending treat. 7 pm (2 pm Sunday).

Sunday, July 21

This is Spinal Tap at Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
"These go to 11." "Hello, Cleveland!" "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." We could spend this whole blurb just mentioning all the quote-worthy lines from Rob Reiner's classic 1984 mockumentary, which follows the titular heavy-metal band, led by frontman David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). And it's still as funny now as it was back then. 3:15 pm.

The Try Guys at Revention Music Center
This weekend is a big one for fans of YouTube stars. On Saturday, makeup-tutorial guru James Charles will be entertaining his "sisters" in Sugar Land on Saturday night. And, on Sunday, the quartet of ex-Buzzfeed employees known as The Try Guys — Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and the recently out-and-proud Eugene Lee Yang — will be doing a show full of the shenanigans they usually do on their YouTube channel. 7:30 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Over-the-top thriller The Housemaid revels in camp, chaos, and excess

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

---

The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

movies film