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

William Shatner beams down to talk movies and space.

William Shatner/Facebook

The second weekend of 2023 and the start of lunar new year events sees some cool art and music performances around town — and Captain Kirk. Some local groups and studios host intriguing art shows at Silver Street Studios, the Menil Collection, and Holocaust Museum of Houston.

Music comes via the Central Library, DACAMERA, and Houston Symphony. A groundbreaking, trend-setting movie gets the stage treatment in a New Jack way. And speaking of movies, one of our most treasured pop culture figures, William Shatner, comes town to take space, the final frontier.

Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, January 12

Houston in Harmony: Featuring James Palmer

Come to Central Library and enjoy the melodies performed by James Palmer, a dynamic young musician. A prize winner and finalist in numerous international competitions, Palmer has produced innovative, social media projects such as the “Scriabin Preludes Project” (2019-2020) and the upcoming “What is a Piano Prelude?” series (2022). He is currently a doctoral student at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying with Dr. Robert Roux on full scholarship. 11 am.

Silver Street Studios presents Bogdan Mihai: "Nature Remembered" opening reception

Silver Street Studios will present the most recent solo exhibition from Romania-raised, Houston-based artist Bogdan Mihai. Do you remember how your grandmother always placed things of value on top of a hand-woven doily? Mihai has created a series of images of animal porcelain figurines, each with its own doily created from natural elements. The images remind us all of how we need to treat the natural world we live in with special care and attention. Through Saturday, January 28. 5 pm.

Mezclada Dance Company presents All of the Above

This new, evening-length dance work by Mezclada Dance Company fuses and celebrates a combination of cultures and art forms such as hip-hop culture, Latin culture, and traditional, concert dance styles. Through the practice of fusing these styles together, Mezclada Dance Company hopes to pay homage to the cultures that inspire the performance, while creating a blend of art that will speak to a wide range of audience members. 7:30 pm.

Friday, January 13

Holocaust Museum of Houston presents "Woman, the Spirit of the Universe" opening day

"Woman, the Spirit of the Universe," designed and created by artist Carolyn Marks Johnson, features stunning bronze collars inspired by 23 American heroines who fought bravely and tirelessly for equality. The collars are stitched by hand, using hand-worked cotton and then cast in bronze. For most of us, a collar is simply an adornment for a shirt or dress. In Johnson’s art, a collar symbolizes the struggle to establish women’s rights. Through Sunday, April 2. 10 am.

Czech Center Museum Houston presents Monarch Chamber Players

Monarch Chamber Players is a collective of Houston-based, professional musicians committed to taking classical chamber music out of the concert hall and into accessible community spaces. Monarch concerts provide a space for friends, neighbors, and communities to connect with each other and with the musicians, as well as an informal setting to become more intimately familiar with classical music. 6 pm.

DACAMERA presents Parker Quartet

Inspiring performances, luminous sound, and exceptional musicianship are the hallmarks of the Grammy-winning Parker Quartet. Renowned for its dynamic interpretations and polished, expansive colors, the group has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. The concert will include Bartók's Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102, Mozart's Quartet in E minor, K. 417d [fragment], and Dvořák's Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “American.” 7:30 pm.

Je'Caryous Johnson presents New Jack City Live

Set to the soundtrack of some of the most classic songs from the film (“I Wanna Sex You Up” better be in this!), this stage production will give audiences an opportunity to experience a classical theater storytelling of their favorite '90s movie – which made action-movie stars out of Wesley Snipes and Ice-T – that can only be experienced the Je’Caryous Johnson way… live on stage. 7 pm (3 and 8 pm Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

Saturday, January 14

14 Pews presents Ikiru

One of the greatest achievements by Akira Kurosawa, this 1952 film shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of death. Takashi Shimura beautifully portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer who is impelled to find meaning in his final days. Presented in a radically conceived, two-part structure and shot with a perceptive, humanistic clarity of vision, Ikiru is a multifaceted look at what it means to be alive. 7 pm.

Noel Miller: Everything is F#&ked

Noel Miller's biting one-liners and topical social commentary has made him a force to be reckoned with in the comedy world. Between directing, touring, podcasting, music and streaming, Miller's rise has been nothing short of meteoric. In addition to starring in the popular YouTube series That's Cringe, and the comedy duo/podcast Tiny Meat Gang with fellow comedian Cody Ko, Miller has created a successful series on his own, including his format around the hit, British reality show Love Island. 7 pm.

Smart Financial Centre presents William Shatner and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Smart Financial Centre will have a night with the one-and-only William Shatner, the original Captain James T. Kirk (and the original T.J. Hooker — for all the ‘80s babies out there). Following a screening of the classic film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Shatner takes to the stage to share some behind-the-scenes stories from his career, including answering audience questions. A limited number of VIP tickets will be available, which include a post-show photo op with Shatner. 7:30 pm.

Houston Symphony presents Riots & Scandals Festival: Bartók Miraculous Mandarin + Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto

Prepare for an extraordinary concert experience when world-renowned virtuoso Yefim Bronfman tackles Rachmaninoff’s lush and legendary Piano Concerto No. 3—one of classical music’s most well-known and beloved masterpieces. And music director Juraj Valčuha leads the orchestra in Bartók’s fearlessly provocative Miraculous Mandarin, part of a two-week spotlight on music that caused an uproar. This combines a gritty urban setting, an explosive musical score, and a lurid plot rife with seduction, lust, and murder. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Sunday, January 15

The Menil Collection presents Samuel Fosso: "African Spirits" closing day

Sunday is the last day to catch this exhibition of 14 large-scale, gelatin silver prints from Samuel Fosso’s African Spirits series, self-portraits with Fosso portraying Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X, and other prominent figures from 20th-century, Black liberation movements. Fosso’s reinterpretations of these historic photographs pay homage to the figures in the original images and raise questions about individuality, celebrity, the media, and the complicated history of representation. 11 am.

POST Houston presents Lunar New Year Celebration

POST Houston is celebrating the Lunar New Year, which welcomes the Year of the Rabbit (Year of the Cat in the Vietnamese Zodiac). During the day, an Asian pop-up market will transform the northern docks at POST Houston into a carnivalesque atmosphere with food vendors serving traditional foods eaten at the Lunar New Year, games, arts and crafts, and other cultural activities. At night, the facility’s X Atrium will host a spectacular party headlined by DJ Phon and MC’ed by Washington Ho of the House of Ho. Noon.

Rothko Chapel presents "Images & Words: Media's Influence on the Struggle for Civil Rights" Annual MLK Birthday Observance

In partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and The Gordon Parks Foundation, the 2023 Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Observance explores the role of the media in civil rights movements past and present. Inspired by the MFAH’s current exhibition "Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power," panelists share their work and perspectives on how photographers and journalists shape narratives around social justice movements and leaders. 3 pm.

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Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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