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Chron •

Glen Powell is (finally) completing his UT degree

The Top Gun: Maverick and Hit Man star announced his intention to return to the University of Texas during a media junket for his newest film, Twisters, which opens July 19.

The Top Gun: Maverick and Hit Man star announced his intention to return to the University of Texas during a media junket for his newest film, Twisters, which opens July 19.

Powell first broke the news to The Hollywood Reporter in May, saying he moved back to Texas after years as a struggling actor in Hollywood. Now that h...
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Famous film director's Austin home listed for $8.9 million

An Austin-area home owned by indie film director Robert Rodriguez, best known for movies including Spy Kids and From Dusk Til Dawn, has hit the market with an asking price of $8.9 million.

An Austin-area home owned by indie film director Robert Rodriguez, best known for movies including Spy Kids and From Dusk Til Dawn, has hit the market with an asking price of $8.9 million.

The home, which sits on a secluded, wooded 4-acre bluff above the lake, has been occupied by the director since 2018, ac...
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Texas Renaissance fairs really hate HBO's 'Ren Faire'

Several Texas Renaissance festivals have issued statements in recent days attempting to distance themselves from a new HBO documentary highlighting the power struggles at the nation's largest such festival, which takes place annually in a small community just north of Houston.

The documentary, called Ren Faire, debuted on the streaming network on June 2. Over three hour-long episodes, the documentary follows 86-year-old festival owner George Coulam, also known as King George, as he grapples wit
Chron •

The 'painful' reason 'Hit Man' wasn't filmed in Houston

Eagle-eyed viewers of the blockbuster new film Hit Man may have noticed some deviation from the source material. Directed by Richard Linklater and co-written with star Glen Powell based on a 2001 Texas Monthly true-crime article, the film was originally meant to be set in Houston. Instead, it was filmed in New Orleans, with scenes featuring The Big Easy's Tivoli Circle, the University of New Orleans, Pho Bang restaurant and St. Charles Avenue.

The movie, which tells the true story of Gary Johns
Chron •

Houston lights up again for East End park art festival

Houston's Tony Marron Park is set to undergo major renovations at the end of this year. But before then, Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Aurora Picture Show are throwing one last big art fest at the east side park.

Called Night Light, the festival features several visual artists who have created site-specific light installations that will be projected throughout the park on the evening of April 6. It's a continuation of Houston's long-standing embrace of light and space artists, from James Turrel
Chron •

Mark Houston spring weather with outdoor screenings of iconic films

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is launching a series of outdoor film screenings that will take place on the sloping roof of the recently renovated Glassell School of Art.

The Moonlight Movies series features three iconic films to be screened throughout April, just steps from the museum's popular Cullen Sculpture Garden. Entrance to the garden will be included with a film ticket.

The screenings will start on April 6 with the Technicolor fantasy The Wizard of Oz. On April 13, the museum will s
Chron •

Where to find Houston's biggest IMAX screens

If you've been wanting to see Dune: Part Two on the biggest movie screen possible, you're in luck. One obsessive movie-goer has been documenting IMAX screen comparisons in numerous U.S. cities, including Houston.

Sean Simon, who posts on the social media platform X and film tracking site Letterboxd, started sharing IMAX screen dimensions earlier this week. In addition to using higher resolution cameras to capture images, as well as laser projectors to display them, upgraded sound and unique the
Chron •

Richard Linklater's Houston-set film 'Hit Man' gets a release date

Netflix has announced the release date and trailer for Hit Man, a highly anticipated film that brings together two Texas-based stars for a comedy based on the real-life story of an undercover Houston investigator.

Hit Man revolves around Gary Johnson, a staff investigator for the Harris County District Attorney’s office who poses as a murderer-for-hire to catch potential killers. But things get complicated when Johnson, played by Glen Powell, tries to come to the aid of a battered woman.

This
Chron •

Space junkie Tom Hanks was spotted at NASA this week

Superstar actor Tom Hanks, known for movies including Toy Story, Forrest Gump, Sleepless in Seattle and countless others, was spotted at Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake this week. A photo of the actor waving to fans while being escorted around the facility was posted to the Houston subreddit yesterday.

Hanks was apparently in town to film scenes for The Moonwalkers, an immersive audio and visual installation that will debut at Lightroom, a newly opened art center in London, in December. Ligh
Chron •

A24 releases trailer for 'The Iron Claw'

The Iron Claw, by A24, tells the tragic story of the Von Erich family, who found fame and fortune as professional wrestlers in the 1980s before all but one of them died. The film stars Zac Efron of High School Musical fame and Jeremy Allen White, of Hulu's The Bear. It's set to hit theaters on Dec. 22.

The Von Erich dynasty got its start with a Jewett, Texas man named Jack Adkisson. Working as one of the most famous wrestlers in both the National Wrestling Alliance and World Class Championship
Chron •

Houston Cinema Arts Festival announces lineup

The 15th annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival will kick off next month with a special screening at the Fifth Ward's historic DeLuxe Theatre, a 25th anniversary screening of Wes Anderson's Rushmore, and a documentary about an all-women football team that played in Houston in the 1970s.

The lineup for the festival was officially announced at a launch party on Oct. 7. The theme for this year's festival is “Bring It on Home.” The event runs Nov. 9–19 at various locations throughout Houston.

In addi
Chron •

Beyoncé announces ‘Renaissance’ film premiere

Beyoncé is widely credited with inventing the "visual album," in which a record is released with feature-length or short films to accompany every song. She's so well-known for this that ever since the release of her seventh studio album, Renaissance, in July 2022, fans have been asking, "Where are the visuals?"—enough so that the merch from her recent Renaissance World Tour even addressed the question.

Now, we finally have an answer. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé will officially hit theaters o
Chron •

Barbie Dreamhouse merch truck heads to Houston in October

Move over Mojo Dojo Casa House. The Barbie merch truck is headed to Houston with two stops in October, bringing all kinds of pink accessories perfect for decorating your very own Dreamhouse.

The Instagram-worthy truck (hashtags #BarbieTruckTour #LivingtheDream) will make an appearance at Baybrook Mall on Saturday, Oct. 21, and then again at the Woodlands Mall on Oct. 27. Both events will take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature exclusive Dreamhouse Living merchandise only available th
Chron •

'Cassandro' tells the story of El Paso’s most flamboyant luchador

In the late 1980s, El Paso-born luchador Saúl Armendáriz was finding middling success working across the border in Juarez, one of hundreds of wrestlers on the grueling, low-paying lucha libre circuit. Armendáriz performed as a rudo, known to American wrestling fans as a heel, and almost always wrestled in a mask that hid his true identity. Then, under the advice of his mentor Babe Sharon, he decided to reveal himself—a queer Mexican American man trying to make it big in a hypermasculine industry
Chron •

What to know about Travis Scott’s ‘Circus Maximus’ movie

It's been a weird week for Travis Scott. First, the rapper and native Houstonian cryptically announced the "end of an era" for Astroworld, his short-lived music festival that was the site of a crowd crush in November 2021, killing 10 people.

Then on Wednesday, his massive concert slated to take place at the Pyramids of Giza outside of Cairo, Egypt, was abruptly canceled, with concert promoter Live Nation citing "complex production issues." The concert, slated to take place Friday evening, was m
Chron •

Houston's historic River Oaks Theatre is finally reopening

River Oaks Theatre, the Art Deco movie theater that for years was known for its midnight movies and independent film screenings, is planning to reopen by the end of 2023.

The opening timeline was announced May 17 in a press release from Culinary Khancepts, the company behind local restaurants ​​State Fair and Liberty Kitchen. Culinary Khancepts, which also owns Star Cinema Grill, took over the theater in February 2022 with much fanfare, including a press conference with Houston Mayor Sylvester
Chron •

Video: Texas stars push legislation to bring more filmmaking to state

A group of Texas-born Hollywood stars, including Houston's own Dennis Quaid, have teamed up to film an online commercial in support of legislation that will bring more incentives to filmmakers who choose to make movies in Texas.

The campaign, called Good For Texas, features Dallas native Owen Wilson, Midland's Woody Harrelson, Uvalde's Matthew McConaughey, Austinite Glen Powell, and honorary Texan Billy Bob Thornton speaking in support of several bills currently making their way through the Tex
Chron •

Here's what Owen Wilson saw at the Menil Collection this week

Movie star and native Dallasite Owen Wilson made a stop at Houston's Menil Collection this week, according to a picture from the museum posted to Instagram on Wednesday. The actor, known for movies like Wedding Crashers, Marley & Me, and his longtime collaboration with Houston-born filmmaker Wes Anderson, visited the museum on May 3, according to the post. The image shows Wilson standing beneath one of the museum's stately oak trees outside the Cy Twombly Gallery, and is filled with numerous "wo
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Houston author Nick Flynn channels dead mystic in new adaptation

Houston author Nick Flynn has spent the better part of a decade trying to bring an epic poem by Romantic writer William Blake to the stage. During that time, he's endured hurricanes in the North Sea and a global pandemic. Now, a film version of that performance is set to make its world premiere in Houston this weekend at the Silos at Sawyer Yards.

The performance, called The Nine Dreams, will be an immersive experience featuring nine filmed vignettes, each about five minutes long, installed ins
Chron •

Houston's premier experimental cinema is relocating

Aurora Picture Show, the experimental "microcinema" founded in Houston in 1998, will be moving into a new home in the East End Cultural District later this year.

The new location, at 201 Roberts Street, is part of The Plant, a community development in the Second Ward being built in 13 historic industrial buildings that once served as the headquarters of oil field manufacturer W-K-M. The new development, between Harrisburg Boulevard and Buffalo Bayou East, will include restaurants, retail, gathe
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How Numbers became the epicenter of Houston's gay scene

Nearly everywhere film director Marcus Pontello goes, they run into someone familiar with Numbers, the long-standing Montrose nightclub best known for its popular '80s night, Classic Numbers. A man at a New Orleans cafe who'd grown up in Dickenson. A Houstonian now living in Toronto who'd been a regular at the club. A woman in Nashville who worked as a coat check girl for the venue in the early '90s.

Pontello has been crisscrossing the country the past few months, screening their documentary ab
Chron •

Diane Severin Nguyen finds beauty in K-pop and TikTok

In a recent interview with Art21, Diane Severin Nguyen, whose new solo show opens this weekend at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, tells an anecdote about growing up the child of Vietnamese immigrants who sometimes struggled with American culture.

"I came home to visit my mom and she was out in the garden, just stabbing fake flowers into the ground amongst real flowers," she said. "For her there was no difference. The fake flowers and the real flowers were filling up the yard and making it
Houstonia Magazine •

J.R. Martinez Talks Inclusive Power of the Arts

When J.R. Martinez returned from Iraq, he didn’t want to be labeled a “disabled veteran.”

In 2003, when he was just 19, Martinez's Humvee hit a roadside bomb. He sustained severe burns to a third of his body and was in a coma for nearly a week. But as he began his healing process, he knew he didn’t want to be pigeonholed.

“Naturally, when you hear ‘disabled veteran,’ you think of someone who is not physically capable or mentally capable or emotionally capable,” he says. “And so my tagline is,

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