weekend event planner

Here are the top 10 things to do in Houston this weekend

Market Days beats the heat with this month’s ice cream-themed event.

Photo courtesy of Regent Square

Heads up, oenophiles: National Red Wine Day is going down this Saturday. In honor of the day, Sixty Vines is highlighting its red wine on tap with customizable wine flights. Guests can enjoy an off-the-menu experience (guided by your server or bartender) and sip on three to four, 2.5-ounce pours from the 60-tap wine system.

That’s happening this weekend, and so is a tasty “anti-food festival,” an ice-cream-themed outdoor market, a James Harden concert (!), and a battle of the bands. Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, August 26

Holocaust Museum Houston presents Displacement and Art: Artist Talk with Jessica Carolina González
Houston artist Jessica Carolina González, first-prize winner of the juried exhibition Withstand: Latinx Art in Times of Conflict, will talk about the influence war and displacement has in her artwork. Her winning piece The Respondent is from her Es Una Lucha series, which superimposes legal documents of deportation and legalization on archived family images and merges the intimate with the removed, forming a comprehensive record of what is and has been experienced. 6 pm.

Commune Preview Event
Since the “anti-food festival” known as Commune will be delayed until March 2022, there will be a preview held Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Thursday will have the Indie Chefs Collaboration Dinner, as well as a late-night pop-up with chefs serving Americanized Chinese food. Another collaboration dinner will be on Friday. As for Sunday, there will be a collaboration dinner, a Jewish DelicaTexan event and another pop-up, this time with Palestinian rotisserie chicken. 6:30 pm (11:30 pm Sunday).

Friday, August 27

The Parkway at Regent Square presents Market Days
Popular, outdoor local artisan market series Market Days beats the heat with this month’s ice cream-themed event, in partnership with The Art Cellar of Houston. Grab a bite from one of the onsite food trucks and a frosty cocktail from The Traveling Spirit as you peruse vendors selling specialty jewelry and accessories, artwork, culinary treats, and more. It’s free to attend, and the first 50 attendees will receive a complimentary, Warhol ice cream painting art kit. 5 pm.

Harris County Cultural Arts Council presents Fly Dance Company: The Gentlemen of Hip-Hop
This Friday and Saturday, Harris County Cultural Arts Center will present this world-renowned dance company, which has been delighting audiences around the globe since 1995. Their expert delivery of hip-hop dance with a classical flavor is a treat for music and dance lovers of any age. This crew expertly infuses multiple, creative elements in its performance, creating a whole new genre known as "theatrical hip-hop." The event includes an opportunity to meet with the performers after the show. 6 pm.

Near Dark 2: Black Magic Art Show at Hardy & Nance Studios
On Friday and Saturday, Insomnia Gallery will host an art show featuring local artists creating work that will be black-light sensitive. They will dark out any windows, kill the house lights, and replace them with black lights to create a unique experience unlike any art show you've ever seen. Guests are encouraged to wear neon colors and highlighters will be on hand if you want to bedazzle yourself. Beer and cocktails will be available. 7 pm (5 pm Saturday).

Saturday, August 28

Aerie Houston Takeover
Leading fashion brand/retail powerhouse Aerie will be running a body confidence and empowerment event at Baybrook Mall, in partnership with Food Truck Promotions. They will be giving out free t-shirts and clothing to the first 175 attendees, as well as free baked goods from local, female-owned businesses. There will also be a 20-percent-off coupon given out that’s available to use in-store or online — and only given to those who attend the event. 10 am.

James Harden & Friends at Bayou Music Center
Nine-time NBA All-Star, entrepreneur, and music executive James Harden will be hosting this charity concert, in conjunction with Spotify’s popular hip-hop playlist RapCaviar. The show will feature some of the biggest names in hip-hop and sports. (The lineup is still to-be-announced.) All proceeds from the event will go to Harden’s charity organization 3 The Harden Way. Proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test within 48-hours of the event required for entry. 7:30 pm.

Houston Cinema Arts Society presents Memory Builds the Monument
Musical legends Ray Charles, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin often performed at Fifth Ward nightclub Club Matinee, known as “the Cotton Club of the South” by musical legends and area residents alike. This new documentary short, from Fifth Ward filmmaker Isaac Yowman, taps the recollections of current and former residents who remember those magical years. The film is the centerpiece of a larger project that includes ongoing oral history interviews. 8 pm.

Sunday, August 29

The Conrad O. Johnson Music & Fine Arts Foundation presents Scholarship Brunch and Concert
The Conrad O. Johnson Music & Fine Arts Foundation will present this event, featuring sounds, brunch, and entertainment by Saturday Night Live trombonist Steve Turre, guitarist Joe Carmouche, and the talents of its Regional Youth Orchestra. Proceeds from the event benefit The Conrad O. Johnson Education, Scholarship and Outreach Program, which directly funds its youth orchestra. The nonprofit formed the youth orchestra to provide students from underserved communities with access to arts education. 2 pm.

National Battle of the Bands at NRG Stadium
For those of you who love seeing college marching bands musically go at it on a football field, NRG Stadium will be having many bands throw down with this Cracker Barrel-sponsored showdown. Among the colleges scheduled to bring it: Tennessee State, Southern, Langston, Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T and, of course, Houston’s own Texas Southern University, who will most likely have its Ocean of Soul band dropping hella jams. 4 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

movies film