weekend event planner

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

Have a trill ol' time at Axelrad's holiday party this Sunday.

Photo by Jamaal Vince Photography

Need a good laugh this holiday season?

There will be two holiday-themed comedy shows going on this Friday night. At Cafe Brasil, we have Unpopular Opinions: Holiday Edition, with comedians Peru Flores and Paul Shinneman performing alongside the 2018 National Champions of Earwolf's Improv4humans contest, Houston's very own Can't Tell Us Nothing.

At Station Theater, The ’80s Kids will present Gen-X-Mas: A Holiday Sketch Comedy & Variety Show, a holiday comedy extravaganza where people face their Christmas present. Both shows are at 9:30 pm.

As always, here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, December 19

Russian Winter Bazaar at Russian Cultural Center
The Russian Cultural Center is once again offering unique ethnic souvenirs and gifts that are hard to find anywhere else. Each and every one of them is hand-made in accordance with centuries-old, Russian traditions. Their collection of traditional blue-and-white porcelain — Gzhel — has been expanded recently, and includes many vintage items. They also have several beautiful, Russian tea sets by the famous porcelain factories, such as Lomonosov (Imperial) Porcelain Factory, Dulevo porcelain factory and others. Runs through Thursday, January 9. 9 am.

The Blue Angel at MATCH
If you've never heard of Marlene Dietrich, the androgynous star of the silver screen, a good place to start is this 1930 flick. Directed by Josef von Sternberg (Dietrich's longtime collaborator), the movie is about a sexually repressed instructor at a boys' school who learns of his pupils' infatuation with a local nightclub songstress. He decides to personally investigate the Blue Angel nightclub, but after stealing a glimpse of the smoldering Lola Lola (played by Dietrich), he finds himself consumed by desire and tormented by his rigid propriety. 7 pm.

Friday, December 20

Weekend Cake Shop Pop-Up at Jusgo Supermarket
Lady M New York will be back in town for another weekend pop-up. This time around, the world-renowned bakery will offer Houstonians the chance to take home one of their Mille Crêpe Cakes for holiday entertaining or gift-giving. Each cake is made by hand with quality ingredients and features no fewer than 20 lacy crêpes, delicately layered with airy pastry cream. So, expect a lot of fancy desserts to be sampled at this three-day gathering. 3 pm (noon Saturday-Sunday).

Die Hard at Landmark River Oaks
Let's settle this once and for all: Die Hard is a Christmas movie! The movie is set on Christmas Eve, after all. It's the movie that proved that Bruce Willis (the then-smart-ass co-star of the TV show Moonlighting) could be an action star, as his barefoot, New York cop takes out a bunch of terrorists (led by the late, great Alan Rickman) who take over a LA skyscraper. 11:59 pm.

Saturday, December 21

Best Friends Animal Society presents Holiday Wishes for Shelter Pets
Presented in collaboration with BARC, Montgomery County Animal Shelter Texas, Harris County Animal Shelter and Fort Bend County Pets — Fort Bend County Animal Services, this two-day event will be placing as many animals as possible in homes for the holidays. Adoption fees for dogs have been reduced to $20 and for cats to $10 and include spay/neuter, age-appropriate vaccinations and microchips. Visitors will also be invited to enjoy hot chocolate, cookies, make commemorative pawprint ornaments and cards.

A Drag Queen Christmas at House of Blues Houston
Those who missed the Ho! Ho! Holiday! Drag Bunch that happened at House of Blues last Saturday may want to check out this extravagant, yuletide experience. Hosted by Nina West, this show will have a bounty of cross-dressing divas pulling out the outrageous, over-the-top stops for your amusement. Even though this is an all-ages, seated floor show, there will be adult, ribald humor coming every which-a-way. So, please take this into consideration when you purchase tickets. 7 pm.

Sunday, December 22

Black Slacks Christmas Party at Cactus Music
Let's commend Cactus Music for continuing to sell records and CDs in these heavily streamed times. They continue to stay afloat by having live, in-store performances and getting all genres of musicians to pop in and do some meet-and-greets. For those who've stuck with the spot all this time, come down and celebrate the season with a Christmas party, complete with food, beverages, free CDs and a DJ set from longtime regular Black Slacks. (Just by his name, you can tell he's gonna spin some cool stuff). 1-4 pm.

Trills the Season Holiday Party and Toy Drive at Axelrad
Axelrad will be getting into the Christmas sprit with its holiday party/toy drive. Now in its fifteenth year, this event has raised and handed out over $20,000 in toys for kids all over this city. Bring a new toy to donate and, on Christmas Day, they'll work to bring supplies to the immigrant and refugee population at the Texas border. Nosaprise, Tony Badd, Thread Atlas, and Free Radicals will be performing, with OG Bobby Trill, Joey Flaco, and Ichikara IV Valdez serving as DJs. 4-9 pm.

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Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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