weekend event planner

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

Yes indeedy, fireworks, patriotism and all that other good stuff will be popping off everywhere in Houston on Thursday. We already dropped a 4th of July roundup with all of the fireworks displays and other events that’ll be going on in and around the city. But there are a few shindigs that didn’t end up on the list, which we’ll present here, along with a bevy of live music events that will be happening all weekend long.

This weekend, get ready to have the music – and the Red, White and Blue – in you. Read on for this weekend’s best bets.

Thursday, July 4

The Savoy presents 4th of July Weekend Celebration
Historic Third Ward bar The Savoy is hosting a jam-packed 4th of July weekend party that runs daily through Sunday. On Thursday, they’ll throw a #Twins of Houston networking brunch and a special, Savoy-style celebration called Freedom on Emancipation. On Saturday, they’ll have a MILFs of Houston Brunch (Mothers I’d Like to Finance). The grand finale will be the Savoy Sundays All Day Brunch Party, featuring free mimosas with the purchase of a brunch entrée before 2 pm. 11 am.

Rooftop Cinema Club Uptown presents Independence Day 4th of July Party
Rooftop Cinema Club Uptown will have a screening of Independence Day following their 4th of July Party. Elevate your 4th of July experience by soaking up the skyline views, while enjoying a live acoustic performance of Americana music, along with lawn and table games. Purchasing a ticket to the party includes a plate of delicious BBQ and a soft drink. Following the party, Rooftop will show the classic sci-fi blockbuster, with Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and more trying to save the day from a giant alien mothership invading the United States. 5:15 pm.

Bauhaus Houston presents B2B: July 4th Liberty Edition
Bauhaus will celebrate the 4th with their favorite locals going back-to-back, squaring off and playing their favorite tunes. Among the matchups on this evening, Casador will go head-to-head with Colorground, Doso and Mehrad will go at it, Xilla will do battle with Propertune, Ozzy will go face-to-face with Om Shiva, and Chava Monroy will get down-and-dirty with Anula. It’s free with an RSVP before 10 pm. 8 pm.

Friday, July 5

Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition One-Year Anniversary
Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition in Midtown is celebrating its one-year anniversary this weekend. Chef Lucas McKinney, who won this year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year, will be serving up beloved classics and menu favorites, such as barbecue shrimp, nuoc mam crab fingers, boudin melts, cracklins, debris fries, corn flan, and the Biloxi Vancleave Po' Boy. Guests will also enjoy all-day happy hour specials, including $1 oysters, $15 beer buckets, and $8 cocktails. 11 am.

The Ensemble Theatre presents Pullman Porter Blues
It’s 1937, and three generations of porters are hard at work on the luxurious Panama Limited train. Midwest blues songs flavor their journey from Chicago to New Orleans as the porters confront dark secrets from their past and tough truths about their future together. This captivating coming-of-age story is woven with iconic blues music. Pullman Porter Blues is making its regional premiere at The Ensemble Theatre. Through Saturday, July 28. 7:30 pm (2 & 7:30 pm Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

Improv Houston presents Pete Holmes
Pete Holmes is the creator and star of HBO's Crashing and TBS' The Pete Holmes Show. He's also the star of CBS' How We Roll, two HBO stand-up comedy specials, the host of the You Made It Weird podcast, and the author of Comedy Sex God. But to us CollegeHumor fans, he’ll always be Badman, a self-centered, sex-crazed, highly incompetent version of the Caped Crusader. Anyway, you can catch this Not-So-Dark Knight doing standup this weekend. 7:30 & 9:45 pm (7 & 9:30 pm Saturday; 7:30 pm Sunday).

Art Factory presents Sunday in the Park with George
Art Factory continues their tradition of producing Stephen Sondheim in their 2024 season with Sunday in the Park with George. The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical tells the story of the struggles of being an artist, a canvas where the genius of the conflicted artist George Seurat unfolds, creating a visual masterpiece inspired by the pointillist painter’s famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The production features music and lyrics by Sondheim, and a book by James Lapine. Through Sunday, July 21. 8 pm (5 pm Sunday).

Saturday, July 6

POST Houston presents Coffee & Cars
Coffee & Cars, where car hobby enthusiasts meet once a month and share the same passion for motorsports, returns to POST Houston for a unique, special-edition gathering. It’ll be a combination of new machines and special icons you don’t want to miss. We’re talking hypercars, exotics, JDM, classics, tuners, and more. This is still a normal gathering, but with a curated section for special machines. All other brands are welcome with first come, first serve parking. 8 am.

City Place presents Hot Nights, Cool Grooves
At this new summer concert experience, guests will enjoy a picturesque setting overlooking waterfront City Place Park and a showcase of regional musical artists from a variety of genres. The evenings, each featuring back-to-back sets, will include an assortment of pop-ups like food trucks with items for purchase, fruit samples from The Peach Truck, beer giveaways from Saint Arnold Brewing Company, free candy from Sour Strips (July 6 iteration only), photo opportunities, event swag giveaways, and more. 6 pm.

Sarah McLachlan in concert
Most of you probably know Sarah McLachlan as that lady who comes on TV late at night and guilt-trips you about rescuing dogs. But we shouldn’t forget that she was a trailblazer back in the day, launching the influential, all-female Lilith Fair fest. She comes to Sugar Land as part of a tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her 1993 breakout album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. McLachlan has released nine albums in her career, most recently Wonderland in 2016. 7:30 pm.

Splice 10-Year Anniversary
Houston record label Splice Records will celebrate a decade of supporting local and regional bands from Houston, Galveston, New Orleans and Austin, their four favorite music markets. Splice is known for throwing incredible concerts, parties and festivals. Recently, they have taken over operations at Dan Electro’s and the anniversary will also celebrate their six-month marker there. Come celebrate with them with a mashup of Vodi, Ancient Cat Society and Dollie Barnes, followed by feature band Tomar and the FCs. 9 pm.

Sunday, July 7

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan" opening day
"Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan" offers a look at Japan’s Meiji era (1868-1912), when the country emerged from near-total isolation to enter a modern, global period. Over these pivotal decades, Japan experienced radical social and political shifts. The exhibition brings together nearly 200 works of Meiji art from more than 70 public and private collections. Through the objects on view, "Meiji Modern" reveals the profound cross-cultural impact of Japan’s developing relationships with the wider world. Through Sunday, September 15. 12:30 pm.

Be More Pacific x 4th Annual Lumpia Eating Contest
Get ready to cheer, eat, and celebrate as Be More Pacific announces the return of its highly anticipated Annual Lumpia Eating Contest. The event was born out of a desire to bring people together and promote local small businesses in the Houston area. Inspired by Nathan's July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest, this event substitutes hot dogs with delicious Filipino egg rolls, or lumpia. This year's event promises to be bigger and better, with the introduction of official Lumpia Eating Contest T-shirts. 3 pm.

House of Blues presents Sir Mix-A-Lot
Okay, we all know Sir Mix-A-Lot made an iconic, chart-topping rap song about big booties called “Baby Got Back” in 1992, inspiring legions of MCs to wax poetically about gargantuan female posteriors. (If you really wanna get nitpicky about it, LL Cool J hit the charts with “Big Ole Butt” three years earlier.) But don’t act like that was the Seattle MCs only banger. The real hip-hop heads remember when he came with club classics like “Beepers” and “Posse on Broadway.” Let’s hope he drops those old-school bops when he plays Houston this weekend. 7 pm.

Courtesy of Be More Pacific

Someone will win the coveted trophy for eating the most lumpia.

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

movies film