Lifting the curtain

Peek inside Houston's River Oaks Theatre ahead of its grand reopening

After several years of will-they-won’t-they, Houston's iconic River Oaks Theatre will officially open on Thursday, October 3.

An opening-night screening of Joker: Folie a Deux has already sold out. (Another screening at 10:30 pm still has tickets available, as of press time.) According to a release, the first 800 people who show up on opening night will receive a commemorative gold coin, a throwback to the old days of early 20th-century movie palaces.

“In the early 1900s, movie theaters used to give out a gift of gold to the very first guests who would walk through the building,” says River Oaks Theatre artistic director Robert Saucedo. “And the tradition was that this gift would give the theater prosperity and luck for years to come. And, so, we wanted to take that and do a little twist on it.”

Located at 2009 West Gray, the River Oaks Theatre is Houston’s longest-running cinema. Opening in 1939, it was last managed by the Landmark company as an arthouse theater. It closed in 2021 and was threatened with demolition until Culinary Khancepts purchased the lease in 2022. The company also operates Star Cinema Grill, State Fare, and Liberty Kitchen. It will open Leo's River Oaks, a fine dining steakhouse, next to the theater.

River Oaks Theatre marquee After a two-year restoration, the River Oaks Theatre is ready to make its grand debut.Photo courtesy of River Oaks Theatre

The River Oaks will reopen with three refurbished theaters, updated lighting and seating, and other amenities. Not only will it continue to show movies, but also host live shows, music, comedians, and other performances as a community hub.

Thanks to a two-year, multi-million dollar restoration, the River Oaks returns architecturally to its 1939 Art Deco roots, but with luxurious modern upgrades. Key historical elements, including the iconic marquee, terrazzo flooring, and statues that grace the main auditorium, have been preserved.

Photo by Jason Ostrow

The River Oaks' main auditorium now has plush recliner seats.

"The team worked meticulously to maintain the venue’s vintage charm while enhancing the overall aesthetic with bold geometric patterns, opulent materials, and modern conveniences," the release says.

Now, plush seats with personal dining tables cover the main auditorium and two auditoriums upstairs. The main auditorium now seats 237 guests and is equipped with a state-of-the-art Barco laser projector, a custom Danley sound system, and full live theatrical lighting and sound systems powered by Q-Sys. Upstairs, the twin auditoriums seat 50 guests each, while a newly added Private Theatre Lounge accommodates 20 guests.

Lavish bars sit on both floors, ready to serve audiences wine, beer, and movie-inspired cocktails. As for food, chef Tim Reading of the forthcoming Leo’s River Oaks has created an elevated menu featuring dishes like Free Range Popcorn Chicken, Veal and Pork Fried Meatballs, The Lobster Roll, Ora King Salmon Grain Bowl, the Luv Ya Blu Burger, Tarte Au Chocolate, and Strawberry Mascarpone Cheesecake. All will be available to order via QR code on each dining table, and food can be delivered to seats.

River Oaks Theatre bar The lavish new upstairs bar.Photo by Jack Opatrny

Along with screening first-run theatrical films — especially art-house cinema that the theater was already known for — River Oaks will have repertory film programs that will play everything from beloved popcorn flicks to cult classics. And, of course, The Royal Mystic Order of CHAOS will be back to host monthly midnight-movie screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But River Oaks will also include live music and comedy events on its main stage.

River Oaks started getting film lovers hyped for the opening by holding invitation-only screenings of such films as Star Wars: Episode IV, Urban Cowboy, The Goonies, and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Regular moviegoers will be glad to know the theater will soon be launching the "Cinema Savant" subscription program, providing unlimited access to films for just $20 per month.

Even though the owners say they still have some work to do to fine-tune the theater, the River Oaks is ready to get back in the movie-showing business.

“The good thing about us is we put a lot of heart and soul into this business,” says Culinary Khancepts vice president Jason Ostrow. “We’re local business owners. It’s not like we’re some big company out of New York or LA — we’re here. So we take a lot of pride in what we do. So we won’t stop kind of tweaking and playing with it until it’s exactly what it needs to be. But, at some point, you've got to open.”

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Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

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