Weekend Event Guide

Here are the top 7 things to do in Austin this weekend

Music, festival fun, and mesmerizing art installations are rightfully taking up space on our agenda in the days ahead. Get inspired at the return of Creek Show or catch artists like Wynonna Judd and Lil Uzi Vert live in concert. Check out the top seven things to do in Austin this weekend. For a complete list of events, visit our calendar.

Thursday, November 9

Bee Cave Arts Foundation and DadaLab present Bee Cave BuzzFest
The Hill Country Galleria hosts an immersive festival celebrating music, tech, and art for guests of all ages. Highlights of the three-day event include art installations in The Hive at Bee Cave Arts Foundation and in the Central Plaza of the Galleria, as well as live performances by musical guests such as The Octopus Project, Machinedrum, and Lealani. Festival admission is free and open to the public. For more details, go to beecavebuzzfest.com.

Bee Cave Arts Foundation

Art, music, and more collide at BuzzFest this weekend.

Moody Center presents Lil Uzi Vert in concert
Rapper Lil Uzi Vert brings his rockstar-level tour to Austin’s Moody Center. The star known for hit songs including “XO Tour Llif3” and “Just Wanna Rock” performs live in concert in support of his new album, Pink Tape. Get more details on Ticketmaster.

Friday, November 10

Waterloo Greenway presents the Creek Show
Art lights up the night in the heart of Austin at the return of Creek Show. Visitors will get the chance to explore and discover illuminated artwork, including eight new light-based art installations, along Waller Creek for nine consecutive days. Additional Creek Show highlights include nightly live music performances, family-friendly activities, food & beverages, and more. Fast passes are available for purchase. General Creek Show admission is free and open to the public. Get more details at waterloogreenway.org.

Saturday, November 11

Cover 3's 15th Anniversary Celebration
Austin restaurant and elevated sports bar Cover 3 celebrates 15 years of business at its flagship location on Anderson Lane. Guests can enjoy “throwback” dishes from past menus, various drink specials, alcohol tastings, face painting, cornhole, and more in honor of the location’s anniversary. For more anniversary information, go to cover-3.com.

Bass Concert Hall presents Ali Wong in concert
Comedian and actress Ali Wong brings fresh stand-up material to Bass Concert Hall for a live audience. She's best known for her recent starring role in Netflix's limited series, Beef, and her two hit Netflix specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, respectively. Ticket availability can be found on texasperformingarts.evenue.net.

Texas Book Festival
After months of announcements and teasers, the Texas Book Festival is ready to turn the page on its November 11-12 events. Visitors are invited to mostly free book talks, a market, and a literature crawl. There are three ticketed sessions for in-demand authors, including political leader and trailblazer Stacey Abrams; she comes to First Baptist Church of Austin on November 12 to support her New York Times bestselling book, Rogue Justice. Tickets include session admission, access to the book signing line, and one copy of Abrams’ new book. Go to Eventbrite for more information.

Sunday, November 12

ACL Live presents Wynonna Judd in concert
Country music superstar Wynonna Judd performs live in concert at ACL Live. The voice of hits songs such as “No One Else on Earth” and “Is It Over Yet” comes to Austin in support of her Back To Wy Tour. Fans can expect a setlist featuring songs from her first two solo albums, performed in full, followed by a finale of other hits and classics from her time with The Judds. Check out axs.com for more details.

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Movie Review

Lord of the Rings animated sequel depends on nostalgia to make impact

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Hèra (Gaia Wise) in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

The Peter Jackson-led Lord of the Rings movie trilogy in the early 21st century was such a smashing success that people have been trying to recreate that magic for a long time. First came the ill-conceived The Hobbittrilogy, which made lots of money despite mostly poor reviews. The recent Amazon TV series, The Rings of Power, has gotten generally good reviews, but doesn’t seem to hold a place in the wider pop culture consciousness.

And now comes The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime-style film that seems like an attempt at both reclaiming the world in animated form from the weird 1978 film, and a nostalgia play for fans of the original series. Set 200 years before the events in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, it nonetheless takes place in two very familiar locations that are recreated to appear exactly how they looked in Jackson’s films.

The story centers around Hèra (voiced by Gaia Wise), the only daughter of King Helm (Brian Cox) of Rohan. An early conflict with Lord Freca (Shaun Dooley) leads Freca’s son, Wulf (Luca Pasqualino), to develop a deep grudge against Helm and his family. Wulf pursues that ill will for years, eventually driving his foes into a fortress in a valley to make a final stand against his aggression.

Based on information found in the appendices of Tolkien’s novels, this is the rare instance when choosing to use animation holds back the creativity of a film. Typically, animation allows filmmakers to do things that wouldn’t be possible in the real world, but director Kenji Kamiyama and his team seem beholden to the look of Jackson’s films. While the animation itself is great, it doesn’t offer the fluidity of live action, and so the action scenes are often stilted and flat.

The story itself is not very compelling, as a quartet of screenwriters have concocted a plot that relies on revenge and heroism tropes that allow the audience to predict almost everything that happens. There are a few surprises to be had, but as the conflict revolves around a strong-willed female character and her unwillingness to be told whom to marry, it’s generally clear how the story will be resolved, with only the specific details left to be discovered.

It also would have been great if the film weren’t so dependent on nostalgia for the original films. The two main locations are ones that played a big part in set pieces from those films, and their usage here doesn’t measure up favorably. Eowyn (Miranda Otto) serves as narrator, and other characters/actors from the original trilogy also make appearances, leaving little room for this film to establish itself on its own terms.

The majesty of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, with its New Zealand vistas and incomparable visuals created by Wētā Workshop, set a high bar that none of the subsequent projects have been able to meet. The War of the Rohirrim is a competently made film, but it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny with the Oscar-quality work of 20+ years prior.

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens in theaters on December 13.

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