weekend event planner

Here are the 14 best things to do in Houston this weekend

It’s time to get revved up this weekend.

While a lot of folks will be decked out in their finest threads for White Linen Night (look for an article with details on Thursday), this weekend features not one, but two events devoted to souped-up automobiles: the Hot Wheels Legends Tour and the All-Stars Car Show. We also have live music from Counting Crows, Jesse Murph, and “Weird Al” Yankovic, a special Star Trek appearance from William Shatner; and – for parents of kids who like to do crazy stuff in roomy vehicles — The Fun Bus over at City Place.

Thursday, July 31

William Shatner Live On Stage with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Bouncing back from the disastrous Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, the crew of the USS Enterprise returned on the big screen in 1982 for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which many consider to be the best installment in the franchise. Following the screening, William Shatner — Captain James T. Kirk/Sergeant T.J. Hooker himself — takes the stage to share fascinating and humorous behind-the-scenes stories from his life and illustrious career, including answering audience questions. 6 pm.

Counting Crows in concert
It was 32 years ago when Bay Area alt-rock band Counting Crows bopped their way into top-40/MTV heavy rotation with their 1993 seven-times-platinum debut August and Everything After, which featured their breakout single “Mr. Jones.” The Crows are still out there crowing. They’ll be at Smart Financial Centre, in support of their eighth, recently-released studio album, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, a follow-up to their 2021 EP Butter Miracle, Suite One. 7:30 pm.

Houston Shakespeare Festival: Henry V
A young king dares to claim the French throne, setting out on a journey that will define his legacy and take his place in history. King Henry faces impossible odds on his unwavering quest to unify his people, lead his troops to victory, and become a true leader. Shakespeare’s masterpiece of the turbulence of war, Henry V delivers a gripping evening of theatre filled with battles, betrayal, comedy, and love. The production will run in repertory with As You Like It. Though Friday, August 8. 8:15 pm.

Friday, August 1

Brick Fest Live
Brick Fest Live is all-in on imagination with stations and attractions designed to inspire creativity and play. Families can get hands-on with different brick challenges throughout the event as well as explore community collab builds and master creations from all over the world. The three-day event will feature a Guinness World Record Challenge where visitors can help create a massive floor mosaic. There will also be a Giant Brick Pit, where everyone can explore a play area filled with over 200,000 colorful bricks. 9 am.

Jurassic Quest
The three-day Jurassic Quest is back in Houston, once again taking visitors through 165 million years of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. Families can go on “The Quest,” a self-guided scavenger hunt-style activity where budding paleontologists can become Jr. Park Rangers, and learn all about the dinosaurs and time periods with the help of a fun and fact-filled video tour, including the towering fan-favorite Spinosaurus. 9 am.

Abilities Expo Houston
Abilities Expo is a celebration designed to increase independence and accessibility for people with disabilities. The three-day event will include interactive exhibits, adaptive activities, informative workshops, and appearances by YouTube stars Hannah and Shane Burcaw as well as transformational speaker Dominika Staniewicz. They’ll be sharing their stories, answering questions, and offering perspectives on life, love, accessibility, and everything in between. 11 am.

"Weird Al" Yankovic in concert
When it comes to pop stars who clearly look like they’re having fun whenever they perform, "Weird Al" Yankovic is a veteran party animal. For over four decades, the accordion-wielding pop parodist has dropped such classic song spoofs as “Eat It,” “My Bologna,” and “I Love Rocky Road.” Yankovic comes to Houston as part of his Bigger and Weirder tour, returning to the big stage for the first time in six years. He will play his iconic hits as well as some fan favorites which have never been performed live. 8 pm.

Saturday, August 2

Mattel presents Hot Wheels Legends Tour
The Hot Wheels Legends Tour, the world’s largest traveling car show and global contest offering custom car builders the opportunity to have their passion projects turned into the next Hot Wheels die-cast toy car, rolls into the Houston area. Hot Wheels designers and local celebrity judges will examine each vehicle based on three key categories: authenticity, creativity, and garage spirit. The winner of the event will move on to the national semi-final later this year for a chance to represent the U.S. in the global finale. 8 am.

All-Stars Car Show
The inaugural All-Stars Car Show at Daikin Park is set to make history as the first-ever car show inside a Major League Baseball stadium. The Astros’ home ballpark will be transformed into a full-scale car show, featuring more than 380 vehicles in exhibits from the outdoor lots to the stadium concourses to the field warning track. Headliners include multiple U.S. first unveilings, legendary classics, and some of the rarest hypercars ever produced — such as a Pagani Huayra, Ferrari F40, Porsche 918 Spyder, and more. There will also be celebrity appearances and a show-stopping Diamond Club display, curated by Daniel & Co. 10 am.

Project Row Houses presents Summer Studios Opening & Community Market
Project Row Houses will present the opening of the Floyd Newsum Summer Studios culminating showcase for this year's cohort of artists from local universities who have spent the summer in studios on the row. The artists will speak about their works during porch talks. Ten diverse undergraduate and recently graduated artists will show work speaking directly to the urgency, complexity, and fragility of our times. Through Sunday, September 21. 4 pm.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents The Unbearable Lightness of Being
In this 1988 adaptation of Milan Kundera’s “unfilmable” novel, Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) achieves a delicate, erotic balance by focusing on three central characters. A womanizing surgeon (Daniel Day-Lewis) struggles with his free-spirited mistress (Lena Olin) and his childlike wife (Juliette Binoche) as they navigate the political and social upheavals of life in 1960s Europe. Tracy Stephenson, MFAH Films assistant programmer and coordinator, will introduce the film. 5 pm.

Sunday, August 3

City Place presents The Fun Bus
The Fun Bus makes a stop at City Place this weekend, for a complimentary mobile gym experience designed for kids, ranging from 18 months to seven years old. With enthusiastic instructors leading games, obstacle courses and themed activities, children can swing, bounce and climb in a colorful, 35-foot refurbished school bus. The bus never moves with children on board and is climate controlled (heat and a/c) to ensure a comfortable environment. 9 am.

River Oaks Theatre presents The Seventh Seal
This weekend, River Oaks Theatre kicks off a month-long film series saluting Swedish filmmaking great Ingmar Bergman. Film/TV critic Chris Vognar will introduce all five films, which includes Wild Strawberries, The Magician, Persona, and Hour of the Wolf. It all begins with his 1957 groundbreaker, starring Max von Sydow as a medieval knight playing a life-or-death game of chess with one very grim reaper (Bengt Ekerot). 2:45 pm.

Jessie Murph in concert
Now that Texas’ own Kacey Musgraves made it cool for country chanteuses to get old-school dolled up, here comes Jessie Murph taking it to a whole other level. Born in Tennessee and raised in Alabama, the 20-year-old singer can go from country to pop to even rap – and always rocking a gigantic bouffant while doing it. Murph will be making a stop at 713 Music Hall, as she tours the country promoting Sex Hysteria, her just-released second album. 8 pm.

Photo by Danny Clinch

Counting Crows perform at Smart Financial Centre on Thursday.

weekend events event-planner

Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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