weekend event planner

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

The beloved Bayou City Arts Festival returns this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Bayou City Arts Festival

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means there will be several, breast cancer-related events and benefits happening all over Houston in the next few weeks.

On Saturday alone, there will be a Breast Cancer Awareness Month CBD Social happening at Green Life Consulting. (It starts at 4:20 pm, of course.) And, later that evening, look for the Party in Pink at Axis & Alibi.

Plenty of other colorful events happening this weekend, such as:

Thursday, October 10

Greenway's Got Talent at Greenway Plaza
In the courtyard between 9 and 11 Greenway Plaza, an outdoor karaoke competition will pop off for the first time this weekend. Contestants and non-competing guests will have the opportunity to sing while backed by The Greenway Band.

IHeart Radio’s DJ Men-Yo will emcee the event, bringing high-energy flair to the evening. Fusion Eats will fuel the evening’s fun with $4 draft beers, $5 cocktails and house-made margaritas, plus $3 street tacos grilled alfresco. 5:30-9 pm.

Houston Italian Festival at the University of St. Thomas
It's time once again to get into the Italian swing of things with this four-day fest. Now in its 41st year, the fest will feature live music, wine and beer tastings, Italian language classes, pasta-eating contests, grape stomps, and more.

Proceeds from the festival benefit several local nonprofits including the ICCC, the Italian language school, scholarships and many cultural events presented to the public each year. 5-10 pm (11 am -10 pm Friday and Saturday; 11 am-6 pm Sunday).

Friday, October 11

stARTup Art Fair Houston at Hotel Icon
The three-day stARTup Art Fair will be holding its first edition in Houston at downtown Houston's Hotel Icon. The fair will transform the third and fourth floor of the hotel into an immersive, contemporary art experience through the exhibition of artwork by a diverse group of independent artists, local art nonprofits, artist performances, installations and panel discussions.

This event is open to the public of all ages with the purchase of a ticket. 7-10 pm (noon-9 pm Saturday; noon-7 pm Sunday).

Turkish Film Festival at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The seventh-annual Turkish Film Festival will be underway this weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Five films will be unspooling: Sibel, Ayla: the Daughter of War, Turkish Ice Cream (Türk işi dondurma), The Pigeon (Güvercin), andSerial Cook (Sofra sirlari).

Filmmakers and Turkish-French couple Guillaume Giovanetti and Çağla Zencirci will be in attendance for Sibel, while producer Çağlar Ercan will be around for Ayla and Cream. 7 pm (4 pm and 7 pm Saturday; 3 pm and 5 pm Sunday).

The Blair Witch Project at Landmark River Oaks
Twenty years ago, a little indie film called The Blair Witch Project hit theaters and freaked everyone out. Shot on a budget of $60,000, this supposedly true account of three student filmmakers going deep into the woods to investigate a local legend called the Blair Witch scared up a lot of money at the box office.

It also jump-started the whole found-footage horror genre. So, of course, it's this weekend's midnight movie at Landmark River Oaks. If you're seeing it for the first time, don't say we didn't warn ya. 11:59 pm.

Saturday, October 12

Bayou City Arts Festival
Nearing its 50 year anniversary, the Art Colony Association event has become an art tradition with many Houstonians. Spend the day or weekend downtown to stroll the art filled streets and view the work of 300 artists from around the world, representing 19 different disciplines. Look for food venders throughout the Fest as well as live entertainment in the City Hall tent, roaming performers and a children’s creative zone. 10 am-6 pm.

A Night at Market Square Park
Even though the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos — also known as Day of the Dead — won't go down until the end of the month, Historic Market Square Park’s annual block party is returning with a traditional, Día de los Muertos theme.

There will be live music from David Beck’s Tejano Weekend and El Tule, as well as Day of the Dead-inspired art installations and community activities at the park. Plus, enjoy food and drink specials at neighborhood bars and restaurants. 6 pm.

New American Festival at The Nina and Michael Zilkha Gallery at MATCH
The Houston installment of New American Economy’s New American Festival will feature and celebrate immigrant contributions to American art, food, film, comedy, music, dance, and more. Immigrant and refugee artists across mediums will come together to share their work and personal stories.

The highlight of the evening will be a fully immersive, live painting performance by Geraldina Interiano Wise, a contemporary Latina artist whose avant-garde work explores themes of coexistence and connectivity. 7:30-9:45 pm.

Sunday, October 13

The Super Happy Toy Show, Art Market and Halloween Party at Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Vintage toy store Super Happy Incredible Toys and Saint Arnold Brewing Company will be holding this all-ages event, which will combine the amusement of a toy show and creativity of an art market with the opportunity to purchase many examples of both.

There will also be trick-or-treating happening all day, as well as costume contests sponsored by Comicpalooza CP365. And, for the adults, don't forget to sample a sneak preview of St. Arnold's Pumpkinator beer for 2019. 11 am-6 pm.

Steve Lacy at House of Blues Houston
Steve Lacy is only 21 years old, but he's already been making a name for himself in the music game as both the guitarist for alt-soul outfit The Internet and an in-demand producer. Along with composing and producing with The Internet, he has also written and produced tracks for Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Vampire Weekend, Kali Uchis, Denzel Curry, and the late Mac Miller. He's in town this weekend, performing songs from his recently released debut album Apollo XXI. 7 pm.

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Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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