weekend event planner

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

Grammy-winning soprano Jessica Jones presents an hip evening of opera.

Photo courtesy of Opera in the Heights

Halloween is upon us. On top of the spooky haunted houses here to scare you, a few fall festivals are here. The 22nd Houston Polish Festivalis currently underway at AMC Studio 30, continuing through Sunday. The ten-day, Blessington Farms Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival in Simonton starts on Thursday.

And the 12-day, Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival begins on Saturday at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston.

Without a doubt, the scariest thing happening this weekend is comics (and notorious joke thieves) Dane Cook and Jay Mohr will be in town performing — at the same time!

Let's get through this together. Here's your best bets for the weekend:

Thursday, October 31

The Exorcist: The Director's Cut at Alamo Drathouse LaCenterra
What better way to celebrate Halloween than watching a horror movie that basically set the template for how scary movies should terrify the hell outta people? This version of William Friedkin's supernatural classic, with Linda Blair as the head-spinning, pea soup-spewing girl possessed by Satan himself, features 10 minutes of footage deleted before the film's 1973 release. So, expect even more things from the movie to mess you up. 7:30 pm.

Whiskey & Witchcraft Party at Bosscat Kitchen & Libations
If you want to spend this Halloween drinking yourself silly instead of chasing down candy, Bosscat will be having a Halloween party (benefitting Hermann Park Conservancy) that'll get you in the spooky, sloshed spirit. We're talking cocktails, costume contests, a live DJ, and more. Tickets include entry to the private event, one cocktail, and small bites. Prizes will be awarded for Best Couples Costume, Scariest Costume, and Funniest Costume. 8 pm.

Friday, November 1

Jessica Jones at Space HTX
Jessica Jones, an opera-singing, Grammy-winning soprano (and Opera in the Heights alumna). She'll be here to do an evening of audience favorites, an evening that will include a cocktail hour, dinner, concert, and an aria raffle. 6:30 pm.

Sabrina Claudio at House of Blues Houston
Florida alt-R & B singer Sabrina Claudio is a performer you almost hate to admit you enjoy listening to. The half-Cuban/half-Puerto Rican artist nearly had her career derailed when it was discovered she posted some racist tweets years ago on an old Twitter account. (She has since apologized, but y'all know Twitter doesn't forget about that stuff.) Nevertheless, she continues to churn out good music, like the tunes on her recently-released second album, Truth Is. 7:30 pm.

Saturday, November 2

A Funky Good Time at Smart Financial Centre
Majic 102.1 will be taking a lot of people back to the '70s and '80s with this concert. The lineup is a full-fledged collection of funk legends: Cameo, Rose Royce, SOS Band, Zapp, Dazz Band, Lakeside, and Morris Day, the frontman for The Time. This show is definitely for all those people who like to enjoy live music while sipping on bottles of Crown Royal they snuck into the show. Majic on-air personality Funky Larry Jones will emcee the event. 5:30 pm.

Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration at Wortham Theater Center
Da Camera of Houston will bring in artists to celebrate the birthday of Blue Note Records, one of most legendary jazz labels out there. (This makes us wish Madlib would've dropped another Blue Note remix album.) The first date in a nationwide tour, the lineup features Kandace Springs, Houston native James Francies and the James Carter Organ Trio. They each will perform a set of their own music, followed by a finale with all of the artists performing a classic Blue Note tune. 8 pm.

Sunday, November 3

Depressed Cake Shop and Bake Sale at Silver Street Studios
It's time once again to make some desserts for depression. Jody Stevens of JodyCakes will host the seventh annual bake sale, which will have unique, grey-colored baked goods that are thematically tied to mental health issues. Attendees will get a chance to bid on one-of-a-kind auction cakes that will be on display, from some of the city’s top restaurants, bakery owners, and pastry chefs. All proceeds will be donated to The Montrose Center and NAMI Greater Houston. 1-5 pm.

House (Hausu) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The MFAH will basically wrap up this Halloween weekend with one head trip of a movie. This 1977 Japanese horror/comedy/whatever, about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home, is also known as a crazy cult classic. This Movie Houstonians Love selection will be introduced by Fareena Arefeen, Houston’s second Youth Poet Laureate and a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. 5 pm.

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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