holidays on the rooftop

Houston's rooftop cinema reveals festive and jolly holiday lineup and themed nights

Rooftop Cinema Club Houston night skyline

Holiday time at Rooftop Cinema Club includes pet-friendly screenings and sing-along hits.

Photo by Rooftop Cinema Club Houston

Few things punctuate the start of the holiday season like a good holiday movie. (Who doesn’t love Will Farrell’s gleeful “Santa!” scream in Elf or the BB gun mayhem in A Christmas Story?) Now, Houston’s Rooftop Cinema Club has unveiled a festive holiday lineup full of flicks that are sure to get even Grinches in the seasonal mood.

In November, fans can look for seasonal classics, popular sing-alongs, and family-friendly screenings such as The Greatest Showman, Grease, Selena, Love & Basketball, Harry Potter, and more.

December brings all holiday feels with Home Alone, The Santa Clause, Elf, Edward Scissorhands, Die Hard, A Christmas Story, and more. The venue will be open seven nights a week during this time and for double screenings Wednesdays through Saturdays.

Tickets for the holiday season go on sale at noon, Wednesday, November 6, and are available online for all showtimes at Rooftop’s BLVD Place location in Post Oak.

Catch a film and give back
When fans purchase tickets to any December screening, they can add a donation to support Coalition for the Homeless’ efforts to prevent and end homelessness in the Houston area. Also, from December 3 through December 15, attendees are encouraged to drop off supplies for newly housed Houstonians and their families as part of a “12 Days of Giving” program.

Christmas classics
Fans who miss out on TV broadcasts of classics such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and A Charlie Brown Christmas are in luck, as the club will host special viewings. Guests are encouraged to dress up in matching pajamas.

“Wooftop” returns
It’s bring your dog to the movies with the pet-friendly screening of the 2000 Jim Carrey hit, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Viewers are encouraged to dress their pooches in their best winter sweater and dog treats will be available (should your furbaby not have a taste for popcorn).

Family screenings
Screenings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday are open to all ages 3 and up. Lounge seat tickets will be $12 for anyone 18 and under, versus our standard $17 lounge seat starting price. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Prices start at $17 per person for a one-person lounge seat. A single-person seat with the addition of bottomless popcorn is $20. Tickets for couples, or a roomier love seat, plus bottomless popcorn, are $24 per person. Student discount ticket start at $15.30, with valid ID required the night of the event.

As always, the cinema will serve up movie grub from Good Dog Houston, which offers three dogs: the Picnic Dog, the Uptown Dog, and The Dude. Additional fare includes fruit and cheese plates, Frito pie, and chili cheese nachos. Adult beverages include a full bar with craft cocktails, local beer options, and an assortment of wines.

Here is the full list of November and December screenings.

November 19 – Dumb and Dumber
November 20 – The Greatest Showman* (Sing-along) and Beauty and The Beast
November 21 – Cool Runnings* and Sex and The City
November 22 – The Lion King (2019) and Selena
November 23 – Mean Girls and Grease (Sing-along)
November 24 – The Wiz*
November 25 – Love & Basketball
November 26 – Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix
November 27 – Planes, Trains & Automobiles
November 28 – Closed
November 29 – Closed
November 30 – Elf and The Holiday
December 1 – Home Alone*
December 2 – Love Actually
December 3 – Little Women (1994)
December 4 – The Santa Clause* and The Best Man Holiday
December 5 – A Muppet Christmas Carol* and The Preacher's Wife
December 6 – Elf and Edward Scissorhands
December 7 – It's a Wonderful Life and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
December 8 – Christmas Classics*: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Year Without Santa Claus, and A Charlie Brown Christmas)
December 9 – The Holiday
December 10 – Die Hard
December 11 – Home Alone* and To Grandmother's House We Go
December 12 – A Christmas Story* and While You Were Sleeping
December 13 – Friday After Next and Gremlins
December 14 – Elf and Love Actually
December 15 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas*
December 16 – National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
December 17 – A Madea Christmas
December 18 – The Polar Express* and The Holiday
December 19 – Elf * and Love Actually
December 20 – Christmas Classics: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and A Charlie Brown Christmas; Die Hard
December 21 – Home Alone and It's a Wonderful Life
December 22 – Elf*

*Denotes family screenings.

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Rooftop Cinema Club is located at BLVD Place above Whole Foods, 1700 Post Oak Blvd. For tickets and information, visit the official site.

families movies

Movie review

Will Arnett shines in Bradley Cooper’s divorce drama Is This Thing On?

Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald

Will Arnett in Is This Thing On?.

With 12 Oscar nominations in the past 12 years in multiple categories, Bradley Cooper has turned into not only an acclaimed actor, but also a touted filmmaker. Given that pedigree, it might be difficult to remember that he first gained recognition as a comedy star in movies like Wedding Crashers, Yes Man, and The Hangover series. For his latest directorial effort, he has married comedy with drama in Is This Thing On?.

Unlike the previous two films he directed, Cooper only has a supporting role, ceding the lead to Will Arnett. He plays Alex Novak, who, as the film begins, is starting the process of divorce from his wife of 20 years, Tess (Laura Dern). Forced to move to a depressing apartment in New York City and only getting limited time with his two kids, Alex finds the unexpected outlet of stand up comedy when he signs up for open mic night at the famous Comedy Cellar.

The film follows Alex as he continues to pursue comedy while still having to see Tess on a regular basis, thanks to a shared custody agreement and get-togethers with friends like Balls and Christine (Cooper and Andra Day) and Stephen and Geoffrey (real life couple Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle). While the comedy serves as a form of counseling for Alex, truly moving on proves more difficult than expected.

The film, co-written by Cooper with Arnett and Mark Chappell, is loosely based on the real-life story of British comedian John Bishop, so one of the biggest things they needed to get right was the comedy itself. Alex’s marital situation lends his comedy more of a confessional style than actual jokes, and his evolution in that space is done well. Shooting in the actual Comedy Cellar and populating the club with real comedians like Amy Sedaris, Jordan Jensen, Reggie Conquest, and more gives those scenes an extra dose of realism.

As if to underscore the personal and emotional nature of the story, Cooper and cinematographer Matthew Libatique make liberal use of closeups with handheld cameras. The camera is constantly moving around and often seems to be right in the actors’ faces, something that is most noticeable when Alex is performing. As if the stories Alex was telling weren’t intimate enough, having Arnett's entire face fill the frame forces the audience to pay attention to what his character is saying.

If there is something to knock about the film, it’s a lack of dramatic stakes. While there’s natural tension between Alex and Tess due to the divorce, it’s way less than in a movie like, say, Marriage Story. There’s also a sneaking suspicion that Cooper was just looking to have fun with the film, casting himself as the comic sidekick and working with good friends like Arnett and Hayes. If ever there was a good hang divorce movie, this is it.

Arnett rarely gets to be in movies, much less as the lead, but he ably embodies this somewhat dramatic part. It helps that he’s given a great scene partner like Dern, who knows when to dial her acting up or down for a particular situation. Cooper and Day are also good despite their story being slightly superfluous, and Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds as Alex’s parents lend the film some extra gravitas.

Is This Thing On? is a much different type of film from Cooper’s first two directorial efforts, A Star is Born and Maestro, and it’s nice to see the filmmaker offer something new. It has a relatable story for anyone who has ever been married while offering an element of uniqueness with someone discovering an undiscovered skill late in life.

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Is This Thing On? opens wide in theaters on January 9.

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Movie review

Will Arnett shines in Bradley Cooper’s divorce drama Is This Thing On?