weekend event planner

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

Shop for last-minute, vintage gifts at Winter Flea by Night.

Photo by Morris Malakoff, The CKP Group

The holidays are here. And if you need a break from wrapping presents and picking up relatives, these events will help you kick back and recharge your yuletide battery.

Thursday, December 20

Pop-Up Fundraiser at The Marquis II
West University will be getting some pop-up love from The Original Ninfa's on Navigation and Antone's Famous Po' Boys. The restaurants will be hosting a fundraiser, to be held at longtime West U bar The Marquis II. This neighborhood spot closed last week after more than 30 years in business at its current location, citing financial difficulties caused by ongoing street construction, only to be purchased by general manager Al Jara and reopened two days later. All proceeds will go to the bar. 6-9 pm.

Screw Cancer Charity Concert
Another benefit will be going down over at Satellite Bar, a charity concert bluntly called Screw Cancer. This show will feature live performances from LYTA, Atwood, MIEARS, Alii Michele, and Indigo Young. Proceeds and donations will go towards helping the Acevedo Family and their matriarch, Ilayahu, with her fight with stage 4 endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma, which is a severe type of stomach and ovarian cancer. 7-11 pm.

Friday, December 21

Hale County This Morning, This Evening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
In a year that has had many fascinating documentary films, a favorite of ours that definitely deserves more attention will be playing this weekend at the MFAH, as part of its Filming America series. It's basically 76 minutes of filmmaker/photographer RaMell Ross capturing every nook and cranny of Hale County, Alaska, taking the mundane, small-town minutiae of the area’s predominantly black residents and transforming it into arresting visual poetry. We can't recommend it enough. 7 pm.

Rob Baird at The Heights Theater
Described on his press page as "a gambler of wit," Austin-based artist Rob Baird will be in town — opening up for Jack Ingram — to promote his latest album After All, which comes out next month. Recorded to tape in East Nashville, All is a concept album that has been called "a love child of Austin songwriting meeting Nashville collaboration." Rolling Stone has already called his new single "Burning Blue" "heavy new folk-rock" — so dude must be doing something right. 8 pm.

Saturday, December 22

Winter Flea by Night and Skate with Santa at Discovery Green
It's gonna be two scoops of ice, cold fun over at Discovery Green this weekend. First off, we got Winter Flea By Night, the Green Mountain Energy-presented flea market, coming back to the grounds. You can hunt for vintage, handmade, recycled, repurposed and renewed goods, plus enjoy live music and food trucks. Before that, you can get in some skating time — and say what's up to Ol' St. Nick — over at the Skate with Santa event at The ICE outdoor skating rink. 5 pm.

Goodnight Charlie's Honky Tonk Anniversary Party
Goodnight Charlie's is celebrating its one year of business the only way it knows how, with a free, day-long, honky-tonk anniversary party. There will be an anniversary cocktail menu and a roasted pig, which will be used for $1 roast pig and tromp tacos. Of course, there will also be live music from Eric Woodring, William & the Texas Starlight, Garrett T. Capps, Mayeux and Broussard, and Folk Family Revival. 1 pm-1 am.

Sunday, December 23

Festivus at Holler Brewing Co.
Any Seinfeld fans in the house? If you are one, you must know how important the nonexistent holiday known as Festivus is around the (very loud) Constanza household. It's also important over at Holler Brewing Co., since the beer spot will be having its third-annual Festivus celebration. The Festivus pole will be there for people to take photos with, along with the Airing of Grievances and Feats of Strength. More importantly, Festivus MiracAle and spiced Belgian Tripel Festivus MiracAle will be on tap. 3-7 pm.

Need a Break from Your In-Laws Happy Hour
Looking for a respite from the relatives and in-laws this holiday season? Local record rustler DJ Abrahan is here to give you some soothing sounds. He'll be spinning at Little Dipper Bar's recurring All-Vinyl Happy Hour, doing three hours of dark wave, new wave, dance and '80s club classics and basically taking you back to your high school years. As for booze, they'll have $2 Lone Star Beer and $2.50 you-call-it well drinks. 3-6 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

Fun visuals can't save The Magic Faraway Tree's meager plot

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids — Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) — are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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