weekend event planner

Here are the top 15 things to do in Houston this weekend

The Oscars will take place on Sunday. Even though we’re living in a time when many people would rather stay home and stream flicks instead of watching them on the big screen, Houstonians can still leave the house and watch the ceremony. Oscar watch parties will be held at La Vita Coffee, Star Cinema Grill, and, as always, River Oaks Theatre.

Other, non-Oscar-related film events will also be going on this weekend, as well as the Moon 2 Mars Festival, the Pop Culture Con, a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Heights Bier Garten, and the return of a group that made your momma’s body go bump-bump-bump back in the day

Thursday, March 12

Space Center Houston presents Moon 2 Mars Festival
Space Center Houston’s Moon 2 Mars Festival is a spring break festival featuring a day-to-night experience with daily STEM activations, hands-on space technology, festive food, live entertainment, and more. The immersive exhibits and experiences will operate during daytime hours. Visitors can explore more than 400 space-flown artifacts, tour the facilities, see the American premiere of The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, and launch a spacecraft in Mission: Sketch. There will be performers from 311 and The Wallflowers. 9 am.

Brennan’s presents Courtyard Bar Crawfish Special
To celebrate the first anniversary of The Courtyard Bar, Brennan’s culinary team will boil up plenty of crawfish for a relaxed mid-week party in the bar and casual dining room. In addition to boil-spiced crawfish ($24 for 2 lb.) and bowls of boil fixin’s, a la carte options include Gulf and East Coast oysters and seafood platters. The event is first-come, first-served, and If the weather is good, guests are welcome in the garden courtyard as well. 2 pm.

B2K and Bow Wow in concert
After two decades, R&B boy band B2K – who are celebrating their 25th anniversary – officially reunite for the Boys 4 Life tour. The tour also marks more than 20 years since B2K and Bow Wow, who is co-headlining, first shared the stage during 2002’s Scream Tour II. It'll be a 2000s free-for-all, with performances by Jeremih, Waka Flocka, Amerie, Yung Joc, Crime Mob, Dem Franchize Boyz, and special guests Pretty Ricky. 8 pm.

Friday, March 13

Daikin Park presents the 2026 World Baseball Classic
Home to the Houston Astros, Daikin Park serves as a host site for the World Baseball Classic, for the first time in 2026. The sixth edition of the international professional baseball tournament has 20 national teams. The first round features Pool B teams -- Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, and 2023 runner-up and 2017 champion United States. The park will host the two-day quarterfinals, including the teams advancing from Pools A and B. 7 pm (2 pm Saturday).

Daily Threads presents The Listening Lounge
Over at Daily Threads, monthly music series The Listening Lounge will be celebrating A Tribe Called Quest’s classic 1991 album The Low End Theory – aka the album that gave us the iconic hip-hop joints “Check the Rhime” and “Scenario.” The event is also B.Y.O.V. (bring your own vinyls), so you can play your favorite albums or swap with fellow vinyl collectors. There will also be an onsite vinyl vendor selling some wax. 7 pm.

Rice Cinema presents The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
An actress and new mother (Zita Hanrot) is haunted by voices as she embarks on inhabiting the role of surrealist writer Suzanne Roussi-Césaire. A group of filmmakers and actors confront the history of Césaire in her youth and stages scenes from her life, troubling the “paradise” of historical memory. Moving between narrative filmmaking and abstraction - a night at a 1940s cafe, and the garden where a film’s cast and crew discuss and bring to life the missing pieces of the writer’s legacy - this 2024 film leaves room for the unknown. See it in glorious 35mm! 7 pm.

Crown Royal presents Marquis Moments with Soulection
Following the national launch of Crown Royal Marquis, the brand partnered with global music collective Soulection to celebrate 15 years of community built through music. Rooted in the energy of the dancefloor, the Marquis Moments with Soulection Tour brings people together around sound, culture and thoughtfully curated moments. Join us for an evening with Soulection founder Joe Kay and friends, bringing people together around music, movement and Crown Royal Marquis cocktails. 8 pm.

Saturday, March 14

Pop Culture Con
Pop Culture Con offers a two-day, family-friendly experience with celebrities, anime guests, comic creators, voice actors and cosplayers. There will be an exhibitor hall and celebrity Q&A panels with opportunities for autographs, voice recordings, and photo opportunities. Celebrities scheduled to appear include the cast of Aliens, Zach Galligan (Gremlins), and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn; and voice actors like Scott Innes, Dameon Clarke, Vic Mignogna, and Chuck Huber. 10 am.

Bayou Heights Bier Garten presents St. Patrick’s Day Celebration
Bayou Heights Bier Garten will join the St. Patrick’s festivities with an all-day celebration, featuring a lively mix of music, contests, and festive drinks. It kicks off with a brunch, followed by a mini market with local vendors, live band performances, and a DJ keeping the party going. Guests can also take part in a lederhosen and dirndl best-dressed contest, test their strength in a stein-hoisting competition, and enjoy green beer and St. Patrick’s-themed cocktail specials throughout the day. Reservations are available on Resy, with walk-ins welcome. 11 am.

River Oaks Theatre presents Night of the Living Dead with Daniel Kraus
Shot outside of Pittsburgh at a fraction of the cost of a Hollywood feature, George A. Romero’s 1968 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead is one of the great stories of independent cinema: a midnight hit-turned-box-office smash that became one of the most influential films of all time. The 4K restoration screening will feature a live conversation with Daniel Kraus, the New York Times bestselling author of Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World. 6:45 pm.

Evelyn Rubenstein JCC presents Houston Jewish Film Festival
Now in its 22nd year, the Houston Jewish Film Festival shines the spotlight on Jewish and Israeli culture, art, and history, and features filmmakers and guest speakers/programming. Highlights will include opening night film, Tatami; a screening of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator; the family-friendly A Rugrats Passover; Friday Night Lights, featuring Shabbat dinner and two short films; and closing night film The Ring. For a full schedule of events, go to the festival website. Through Saturday, March 28. 8:30 pm (2 pm Sunday).

Sunday, March 15

Camaraderie x Craft Pita: A Lebanese-Inspired Sunday Brunch
Two of the restaurants nominated in this year's CultureMap Tastemaker Awards are teaming up for this one-day-only event. Created by chefs Shawn Gawle and Raffi Nasr, the three-course, $45 menu includes savory Lebanese pastries, shared dishes served with za'atar pita, choice of entree, and a dessert trio. Reservations are recommended, but walk-ins will be available. 10 am.

Discovery Green presents Houston Walk for Victory
Over at Discovery Green, Walk for Victory is The Marfan Foundation’s global walk program that brings the Marfan, Loeys-Dietz (LDS), Vascular Ehlers-Danlos (VEDS), and related genetic aortic and vascular conditions community together for an afternoon of fundraising and fun. The Foundation drives research, education, and support to improve outcomes, save lives, and empower all people to thrive who are living with the aforementioned syndromes and conditions. Noon.

Alley Theatre presents The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is a timeless comedy that follows two British bachelors who invent alter egos to outwit society and find love. As their deception unravels, chaos and hilarity ensue. One of Oscar Wilde's most celebrated works features mistaken identities, secret loves, and sparkling satire. Contains minor intimacy and discussion of sexual situations. Haze will be used during the performance.Through Sunday, March 29. 2 & 7 pm (Thursday 7:30 pm, Friday 8 pm, Saturday 2 & 8 pm).

Michelle Buteau: The Surviving and Thriving Tour
Comedian/actress/bestselling author Michelle Buteau comes to Houston with her new stand-up tour. Fresh off her Netflix dramedy series Survival of the Thickest, named after her 2020 memoir (the third and final season will drop later this year), Buteau is ready to take the stage with a brand-new set that delves into life’s unpredictable twists and turns - parenting, relationships, body positivity, and navigating the chaos of modern life. 7:30 pm.

Bayou Heights Bier Garten St. Patrick's Day

Photo by Emily Viteck

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day this Saturday at Bayou Heights Bier Garten.

things to do houston event-planner weekend events

Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

movies film