The Arthropologist

A bounty of good: It's been a year of "farewell" and "hello" on Houston's artsscene

Houston Ballet artist Karina Gonzalez in Emeralds, choreographed by GeorgeBalanchine
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Jessica Janes, Elissa Levitt and Ivy Castle in The Catastrophic Theatre'sproduction of Lisa D'Amour's Anna Bella Eema
Photo by Anthony Rathbun
Shannon Emerick and Matt Lents in the Classical Theatre Company's production ofCandida
Photo by Jan Saenz
Diane Barber is moving on from Diverse Works.
Photo by Gary Fountain
Gary Tinterow was named director of the Museum of FIne Arts, Houston.
Photo via MetMuseum.org
Cinema Arts Festival Houston
Danielle Rowe and artists of Houston Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty,choreographed by Ben Stevenson
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Houston Ballet artists James Gotesky and Melissa Hough in C-Sharp Minor,choreographed by Melissa Hough
Photo by Amitava Sarkar

Don't mind me. I'm just camped out on the docks, waiting for the white smoke to signal that DiverseWorks has hired a new executive director.

Can you tell how the amount of change I've weathered this season has taken its toll? I prefer for people to stay in their jobs. But alas, thing happen. Some sad but part of life, like Diane Barber's moving on from DiverseWorks. Others seemingly out of the blue, like Anthony Freud's rather abrupt departure from Houston Grand Opera.

Then there's Houston Ballet's long thought out transition from C.C. Conner to James Nelson as the incoming executive director in February 2012. One has to love the way that dance people plan ahead. The International Festival, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Opera in the Heights Talento Bilingue de Houston, Dance Source Houston, the Bayou City Art Festival and Art League also have new leaders.

It's been a year of farewells and hellos on the culturescape.

As I write this, Fresh Arts and Spacetaker are deciding whether or not they want to join forces, the Theatre Communications Group discusses whether or not Houston will be the site for the 2013 annual conference, and of course, the board of DiverseWorks is trying to figure out who will lead the edgy hub.

Hence, some white smoke would be a nice touch.

A bounty of good

Some change has brought a bounty of good. How about the trio of relative newbies at Houston Ballet, Karina Gonzalez, Melissa Hough and Danielle Rowe? The threesome sure put me on the map, with a Dance Magazine cover story on Gonzalez, a Pointe cover story on Hough, and Rowe's "25 to Watch" entry in Dance Magazine. Thanks, ladies! They deserved every drop of ink. Gonzalez danced up a big ball of wonder in Jorma Elo's ONE/end/ONE, Hough did her brilliant Balanchine best in Rubies, and Rowe's elegance was a standout in Christopher Wheeldon's Rush.

Part poem, part song, D'Amour's dirt infested trailer park tale comes alive under Jason Nodler's direction and outstanding performances by Ivy Castle, Jessica Janes and Elissa Levitt. Without a doubt, they live up to their tag line, "We will destroy you."

Houston Ballet opened Center for Dance, a downtown beacon for ballet. Watching the company's first plie in the building felt historic.

It was a year marked by Houston dancers performing out of town, oddly in New York City on the very same week, with Houston Ballet at The Joyce and NobleMotion Dance, iMee and others at The Dance Gallery Festival.

The Catastrophic Theatre enjoyed yet another fine year. Sarah Kane's tone poem, Crave, will go down as one of the most memorable and intense nights in the history of Houston theater. Catastrophic stormed out of the fall gate after a sold-out run of Tamarie Cooper's The United States of Tamarie, with a stunning performance of Mickle Maher's There is a Happiness that Morning Is, proving just how much you can do with a good play, three fine actors and a small empty room with folding chairs. Nice. Then came the luminous, muddy, smokey and utterly mesmerizing Anna Bella Eema, by the award-winning playwright Lisa D'Amour. Part poem, part song, D'Amour's dirt infested trailer park tale comes alive under Jason Nodler's direction and outstanding performances by Ivy Castle, Jessica Janes and Elissa Levitt.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dueling art fairs and news has it they both planning on coming back. The idea of seeing that much art without having to move the car is my kind of event, and didn't the Houston galleries look flashy?

Spacetaker has showed savvy in two areas having nothing to do with taking over arts organizations, curating their exhibition space known as "The Arc" and hosting an informative and extremely well-attended professional development workshop series. They have figured out what artists need and deliver it.

Classical Theatre Company (CTC) has emerged as the traditional folks to watch. Their vivid production of the George Bernard Shaw classic, Candida, showed off the deep talents of Shannon Emerick and CTC regular Thomas Prior. CTC's collaboration with the Prague Shakespeare Festival was a unprecedented event for such a young theater troupe and a testament to the stability they have built in a short time. I fully expect their upcoming dive into Chekhov, with Uncle Vanya, to be a yet another polished night of theater.

BooTown has emerged as rulers of the alt theater world. Their uber popular Grown Up Story Time, now on Round 43, draws huge crowds at Rudyards Pub. And with their outdoor bloody puppet shows, it's hard to know what to expect. That's the point.

Dueling art fairs

Finally, the last big cultural bonanza I want to talk about is the Cinema Arts Festival. Having clocked in five days in the dark with 12 films, all of them compelling, I can honestly say that this is one gem of a film festival, and it gets better with each year. Alright, so the big movie for me, Wim Wenders' Pina, in 3D no less, was a dance movie. Movies about the arts make good movies.

Hope to meet you on the art road in 2012.

See what I mean about Houston Ballet Principal Danielle Rowe in Christopher Wheeldon's Rush

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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