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

Comedic horror movie Y2K takes nostalgic trip with mayhem twist

Photo courtesy of A24

Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, and Julian Dennison in Y2K.

Movies that rely on nostalgia can be successful if they’re timed right. Generally, 25-30 years seems about the right amount of time to try to take advantage of people’s fond feelings for a certain era, which is why movies/TV shows about the ‘80s have been prevalent for much of the 21st century, and ‘90s-set films started to pop up in the last 10 years.

Y2K, a horror comedy that plays on the fears of technological mayhem many people thought would happen at the turn of the century, is right on the cusp of that rule, taking place 24 years after its timeline. It centers on two teenage boys, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who are opposite in demeanor but have an unshakeable bond. Eli likes a popular girl, Laura (Rachel Zegler), and Danny convinces him to crash a New Year’s Eve party where she’ll be.

As the clock strikes midnight and the year moves from 1999 to 2000, everything that uses an electrical current goes haywire, with many of them combining forces to attack the humans around them. Eli and Danny find themselves on the run with Laura, as well as two stoners, Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), with each of them trying to use their unique skillset to help defeat a growing robot army.

Directed by Kyle Mooney and written by Mooney and Evan Winter, the film lands some solid jokes about the era in its opening 20 minutes or so, whether it’s the extreme slowness of dial-up internet, the goofy user names from AOL Messenger, or the various high school cliques of the time. However, many of them seem to echo ones told in 1999’s American Pie, a weird kind of art-imitating-art moment instead of commenting on real life.

The jolt of the machines attacking partygoers seems to promise a fun — if bloody — romp, but Mooney and Winter don’t seem to know where to take the story. They establish the computer bona fides of Eli and Laura early on, but when it comes time for them to put their talents in action, it feels like two actors going through the motions instead of real people who know what they’re doing. Almost none of the characters are believable or entertaining, and the few that rise above are dispatched way too early.

And because the filmmakers don’t make you care about the main group, nothing they face is that interesting, either. The villainous robots are made up of a bunch of disparate parts, which would seem to offer the opportunity for funny sight gags. Mooney and his team fumble most of their chances, though, leaving that side of the story stuck in limbo where it’s not absurd enough to be hilarious or scary enough to really count as horror.

Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are each rising stars who have their individual charms, but only Dennison is able to make much of an impact. Zegler, who starred in West Side Story and will soon be Snow White, is especially misused. They try to shoehorn in a cameo by Limp Biskit lead singer Fred Durst, but his appearance makes little sense and adds almost nothing to the story.

Filmmakers who want to mine nostalgia, especially in a comedy, need to really commit to the bit instead of throwing in a few references and needle drops. Mooney, who’s making his directorial debut, demonstrates little feel for timing, and so most of the film is like a car spinning its wheels, going nowhere.

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Y2K opens in theaters on December 6.

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weekend event planner

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

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Movie Review

Comedic horror movie Y2K takes nostalgic trip with mayhem twist

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.