Irene Antonia Diane Reece: “Don’t Cry for Me When I’m Gone”

Through March 6, Women & Their Work

Forgotten histories, missed connections – there’s a distinct sense of grief only members of a diaspora can understand. Houston-born photographer and activist Irene Antonia Diane Reece concentrates on these phenomena in her work, capturing images of Black Americans in her attempts to protect Black history and decentralize whiteness in the artistic sphere and beyond. Layering text from Black Southern archives onto photos, her multimedia installation “Don’t Cry for Me When I’m Gone” highlights the weight of the loss that comes from the death of loved ones – and the importance of archivism in ensuring their memories live on.   – Carys Anderson

SWASS Comedy Nite

Thursday 16, Feels So Good

SWASS – which here means “some wild ass silly shit” – covers many melodic endeavors in their shows around ol’ Austin town. Yes: Music and karaoke reign over their Instagram grid, though it does not concern us in this blurb. We’re talkin’ SWASS’s comedy night, an addition to their creative lineup beginning in November 2019 all the way ‘til now. Feels So Good, aka Bat City’s best for bootleg and bawdy branded apparel, plays venue to the hee-hee haw-haw homies – as well as an open bar sponsored by Deep Eddy Vodka, Waterloo Sparkling, and St. Elmo Brewing Co. Michael Rene Reyes hosts, with Avery Moore, Aya Amarir, Lando Shepard, Andrew Murphy, Joey Z, and Dustin Pilkington playing the stars studding the night.   – James Scott

She Was Here

Through February 9, Austin Playhouse

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of unearthing secret treasure? Of feeling the thrill of setting eyes on lost records from the past? That’s exactly what happens in She Was Here, as protagonists Amanda and Gabi discover a hidden box during the COVID lockdown. As they dig through the box’s contents, they discover startling revelations about history. With a particular emphasis on feminine strength and resilience, will this latest play from playwright Raul Garza elicit tears? Probably. Will it also inspire and enlighten? Most definitely.   – Cat McCarrey

Tomie (1998)

Friday 17 – Saturday 18, AFS Cinema

Who is Tomie? If you want to say it plain, Tomie is a character created by master horror mangaka Junji Ito – a young woman whose beauty so affects its beholders they must kill her, only for Tomie to regenerate again and again to destroy their lives. But Tomie isn’t just a character: She’s an elemental force, beauty and vanity curdled into a thousand pieces waiting behind every corner to confront those who both covet and cringe at her visage. AFS’s Lates series screens a newly restored edition of the pretty terror’s first cinematic manifestation, but rest assured she’s got a nine-film franchise. Anyone working on a Tomie disembodied-head popcorn bucket?   – James Scott

And, Found: A Pop-Up Exhibition by Quarters

Friday 17, Civil Goat Coffee

Time enough at last, one might think after the holiday hubbub. But lo, what is the truth? We’re all a little loopy over what time we have and how we spend it. Artists Lukas Zamora, Travis Benton, and Chronicle contributor Lina Fisher ponder these themes – “memories, time, the forgotten, and the found” – for art initiative Quarters’ newest exhibition. To do so, they utilize many mediums from acrylic and pastel paints to wild clay ceramics for pieces that hang on Guad area coffee staple Civil Goat. Pop in for this pop-up’s kickoff and you’ll also catch musician Autumn Thompson giving the show title/theme her own written interpretation.   – James Scott

Meat Machine + “Body Language”

Friday 17, We Luv Video

Weird movies taste best when homegrown, which means saving your dollars and cents for local film screenings at local places rather than massive multiplexes who just laid off over a hundred people. (Anyone growing nauseous at the scent of hatch green chili gravy?) We Luv throws two heaters on the projector this Friday that fit the weirdo bill with voyeurist voyage “Body Language” and nuclear fallout feature Meat Machine. Catch these Texas-made movies at their world premiere to win bragging rights at all future DIY house parties.   – James Scott

Black Sabbath

Friday 17, Sunday 19 & Sunday 26, AFS Cinema

Horror is international but also affected by borders. Take 1963’s horror anthology Black Sabbath. Italian studio Galatea wanted to make a gory, taboo-busting art horror. Their American International Pictures co-producers wanted a teen-friendly drive-in flick. Galatea wanted visionary director Mario Bava as their selling point. AIP needed a recognizable name and had a good working relationship with Boris Karloff. Galatea needed the film in Italian even as AIP sold it in English markets. They couldn’t even agree on what order to run the three stories of death, ghosts, vampires, and slashers in. Yet their compromise resulted in a grotesque and eerie masterpiece that made Bava an international name and gave Karloff his last great role – or rather, roles, as he turns up as both narrator and in the segments.   – Richard Whittaker

Death Becomes Her

Friday 17 – Monday 20, Alamo Village, South Lamar, Lakeline & Mueller

Like most non-musical movies turned musical stage shows, I don’t expect the addition of song to really up the camp value here. Robert Zemeckis’ goofball black comedy about two women who sacrifice life for beauty thanks to a stellar sales pitch from Isabella Rossellini already hits that perfect pitch between weird and watchable sans vocal accompaniment. But I’m sure the audience for this week’s Queer Film Theory 101 movie (Not the Highball live show, the other QFT) will protest this point, musical-pilled gays that they are. Hopefully after ingesting the silly symphony alive in Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn wrestling in a garish indoor fountain, they’ll see that adding narrative-driven singing is just gilding the lily.   – James Scott

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Signing

Friday 17, Tanger San Marcos

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live, a national tour combining the thrills of a freestyle obstacle course with real-life versions of Hot Wheels-produced monster truck toys, comes to the Moody Center this Saturday and Sunday. Visit the Toys “R” Us at the Tanger late Friday afternoon for a free opportunity to take a picture with the gigantic, fire department-themed 5-Alarm monster truck. The event is also a meet and greet with the driver of 5-Alarm, Joe Cypher, who drove 5-Alarm last year.   – Derek Udensi

Dr. Daniel Black in Conversation With Roger Reeves

Friday 17, Huston-Tillotson University

“Here they come, y’all, here they come!” Such an opening for the event announcement from Black Pearl Books aptly conveys the excitement generated by these two literary powerhouses convening. UT prof and poet Roger Reeves debuted his first nonfiction work in 2023 with the excellent Dark Days: Fugitive Essays, following up National Book Award finalist Best Barbarian. Atlanta author Dr. Daniel Black celebrates his eighth release with Isaac’s Song, a poignant revisiting of beloved characters from 2022’s Don’t Cry for Me, exploring forgiveness, growth, and a Black queer son’s relationship with a domineering father. Don’t miss the chance to see these two acclaimed authors in a captivating conversation, and be sure to RSVP as space is very limited.   – Kat McNevins

Audrey Rodriguez & Slater Reid Sousley

Through February 1, McLennon Pen Co. Gallery

What is a still life but a metaphorical blank canvas on which to paint the objects that make up your life? Two artists explore the still life’s limits at McLennon Pen Co.’s gallery: Audrey Rodriguez’s Levitation Series and the Americana and Camouflage Series from Slater Reid Sousley. These artists differ in their materials – oil on linen for Rodriguez and acrylic on canvas for Sousley – and their return addresses. Hailing from New York, Rodriguez delivers slices of modern life influenced by her Honduran and Mexican heritage that dazzle in primary colored hues. Sousley comes in from Kansas serving, well, Americana: red, white, and blue shades showing cultural markers familiar to the Texan sensibility with specific connections to the artist’s own family. Catch both shows opening this Friday.   – James Scott

Lucky Ladies

Saturday 18, Cheer Up Charlies

This stage ain’t big enough for the two of us – and that’s because these two ladies are already up there. The lawless Lainey Gonzales and legendary Lucy Lonestar (née Lucy Fur) hold up Red River saloon Chups for their two-woman show, featuring songs from both as well as drag. You tough enough to lay down the suggested 10-buck donation? This ain’t no song shootout for the faint of heart…   – James Scott

Swamp Ass – An Immersive Ogre Party

Saturday 18, the Tiny Minotaur

A special invitation delivered straight to you, dear Reader, for entry into da freakin’ swamp. Usually a certain copyrighted green creature keeps his distance from any frivolity, but after convincing from the fantastic folks at Tiny Minotaur – and a makeover from host Gothess Jasmine – he’s ready to shed his many layers. You’ll get bawdy among these fairy-tale funmeisters, enjoying live performances, a famous ogre lookalike contest, and much more. Plus, this party’ll also fundraise for a future freak show from Gothess’ Amazing Aeffects. That’s really making the dream work.   – James Scott

Citizen Kane

Saturday 18 & Wednesday 22, Alamo Lakeline, Mueller & Slaughter Lane

Poor John Ford. To have your film win five Oscars – including your own personal little golden man for Best Director – only to spend your entire life knowing your hour of victory will forever be seen as the original award season snub. In 1942, at the 14th Academy Awards, Ford’s adaptation of Richard Llewellyn’s 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley beat out Citizen Kane in all the big categories, leaving Orson Welles to share custody of a single award (Best Original Screenplay) with Herman J. Mankiewicz. How has history regarded that decision? Well, let’s just say that no one is lining up to catch a 4K restoration of Ford’s flick about a Welsh village this week.   – Richard Whittaker

Women’s March

Saturday 18, Huston-Tillotson University

Two days before MLK Day has marchers arrive at HTU, the Women’s March convenes there at 10am to “defend our rights and our future.” When it began in 2017, the first time Donald Trump was inaugurated, the Women’s March made history as the largest single-day protest in the U.S. Here we go again! Although it is called Women’s March, all are welcome to join who “believe that decisions about your body should remain yours; that books belong in libraries, not on bonfires; that health care is a right, not a privilege for the wealthy; if you believe in the power of free speech and protest to sustain democracy; or if you want an economy that works for the people who power it.”   – Kat McNevins

Trans Community Day

Saturday 18, RSVP for Location

Our Lone Star leaders at Transgender Education Network of Texas bring their best to help prep the trans community ahead of the 89th Lege. Bills filled this upcoming session include all the hateful hits from bathroom bans to health care hustles – none of which improve a single Texan’s life, trans or otherwise. TENT hosts this educational meetup to both distribute tools for fighting back against these legislative attacks and develop community connections between trans and gender expansive Texans. Hit their Insta (@transtexas) to find the event’s sign-up link.   – James Scott

The Wages of Fear

Saturday 18 – Sunday 19, AFS Cinema

Who’s up for a nice, relaxing weekend drive? Not Henri-Georges Clouzot. When he adapted Le Salaire de la peur (the first of three autobiographical novels by Georges Arnaud) he took cinema audiences on a nerve-wracking journey into the heart of postwar nihilism. Four men – a German, an Italian, and two Frenchmen – take their lives in their hands as they clutch the steering wheel of a truck filled with nitroglycerine. Within its high-stakes noir drama of desperation and danger lies a subtle and more meaningful than ever metaphor for the tortured relationship between Europe and America, as the four men risk life and limb for the Yankee dollar.   – Richard Whittaker

VHYes

Saturday 18, Alamo South Lamar

This 2019 nostalgia piece is truly a family affair. Jack Henry Robbins directs his father, Tim Robbins, in a voyage through vintage video tech where an Eighties teen accidentally tapes over his parent’s wedding vid to cosmically strange ends. Though the parental melodrama at the film’s heart isn’t hard to follow, Henry Robbins’ story utilizes retro staples like goofy music videos, porno schlock, and high-tension talk shows. The late Adam Yauch-founded distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories lends the film to Alamo’s Fantastic Fest series for a live cast Q&A tour. Austin gets producer Delaney Schenker, whose credits also include E! Online’s “Benedict Cumberbatch Performs I’m a Little Teapot.”   James Scott

Ballet Austin: Get Fit!

Sunday 19, Ballet Austin

If you think Ballet Austin is only about tutus and pliés, then you must not have heard about this annual free day of classes. Sign up to explore the whole breadth of what Ballet Austin has to offer regular folks looking for a new fitness regimen, from Latin and Cardio dance to Full Body Stretch and Pilates Reformer with machines. But if you’ve still got your heart on those pliés, no worries – there are Barre Fitness classes on the menu, too. Advance signup is required.   – Kimberley Jones

Austin Film Critics Association Presents Sing Sing

Sunday 19, AFS Cinema

It all started with Sin City. That was the very first movie to win the Austin Film Critics Association’s Best Austin Film, an honor bestowed to a movie whose director was a local resident during production. After 20 years of the AFCA, now that honor goes to Sing Sing, filmmaker Greg Kwedar’s Oscar-touted drama based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts theatre program at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It’s an extraordinary achievement for Kwedar on what’s only his second film, especially in a year that featured new films from Austin moviemaking legends including Richard Linklater (Hit Man), Jeff Nichols (The Bikeriders) and the Zellner Bros. (Sasquatch Sunset). Join the AFCA for this special screening as the film makes it way into award season.   – Richard Whittaker

Paper Cuts: The Wounded Man/Crazy for Vincent

Sunday 19, AFS Cinema

Alienated Majesty Books and AFS partner up for their monthly lit and film tête-à-tête, the two mediums in conversation thanks to author Hervé Guibert’s work in both. Co-writer alongside director Patrice Chéreau, Guibert brings themes of his own memoir into The Wounded Man’s script – the loss of an erotic fixation, a person the protagonist cannot have yet wants deeply. While the author pens his personal story about a late teen addict whom he shared a fractured six-year relationship, the film opts to follow protag Henri (Jean Hugues Anglade) as he explores the night, criminal escapades, and the enigmatic Jean. Catch the flick at AFS for a post-movie chat as well as an Alienated Majesty pop-up shop.   – James Scott

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Sunday 19, Alamo Lakeline, Mueller & Slaughter Lane

Has anyone worn a miniskirt better than Wesley Snipes? Or floated around in flouncy nighties better than John Leguizamo? Or carried off a smart suit skirt with the regality of Patrick Swayze? Maybe, but put those all together and you’ve got magic. You’d think that a movie starring three of the most badass actors of the Nineties as roadtripping drag queens hiding from scuffles with The Law wouldn’t age well 30 years down the road. I’m delighted to tell you – this holds up. Swayze, Snipes, and baby queen Leguizamo are treated with tender respect, not as jokes. They’re integrated into a small town full of every notable character actress, plus the inimitable Stockard Channing. Together they explore womanhood, learning that sometimes, the best lady friends have Adam’s apples.   – Cat McCarrey

Strangers on a Train

Sunday 19, Violet Crown Cinema

While trying in vain to find this 1951 Alfred Hitchcock thriller streaming for free, I was diverted to an oddball Tubi offering called Stranger Story 2, a low-budget anthology of modern folks having chance meetings with a nosy hippie who ends up being Jesus Christ himself. Don’t let this happen to you! Part of Violet Crown’s bucket list of films to see before you die, this one really is an essential that is also an excellent rewatch. It’s based on the 1950 novel by the brilliantly twisted Patricia Highsmith, creator of the dastardly Tom Ripley, and involves a pair of strangers and a train. Well, I guess we can also tell you without spoiling too much that the strangers arrange to “trade murders.” Go see it to find out the rest!   – Kat McNevins

Real Housewives of Austin: Live!

Every other Friday through February 28, ColdTowne Theater

Some people claim that reality shows are scripted. For anyone who has watched the branches of the Real Housewives franchise tree, you know it can feel that way sometimes yet other times it feels nearly impossible that someone sat down and typed out the words spoken by these irresistibly watchable women. One thing you can count on for this local staging of the reality series is that it is entirely made up on the spot. The improvisers of ColdTowne wouldn’t do it any other way! Expect interpersonal chaos that surpasses the source material.   – James Renovitch

Campfire

Through March 30, ZACH Theatre

Making an expert theatregoer is the same as making an expert athlete – just start ’em young. ZACH’s Campfire creates the perfect incubator for aspiring audience members. An experience catered for cultural mavens age 5 and under, Campfire provides intrigue and adventure in an enchanted forest. While experiencing the forest, guests will be given a blanket, pillow, and egg shaker. Clocking in at under a half hour long, it’s a quick and clean way to show those young’uns what plays are all about.   – Cat McCarrey

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Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what’s happening now or in the coming week.