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 Jack Opatrny

The new VIP Screening Lounge.

"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

New horror movie Sinners sings the blues with twin turn from Michael B. Jordan

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films — Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.

Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.

They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.

Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police. How Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.

Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.

It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it winds up being the least interesting part of the story.

Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.

Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.

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Sinners opens in theaters on April 18.

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