Summer in America means movies, and summer movies typically mean big names, big explosions, product placement and sequels. The summer is a sort of artistic doldrums for Hollywood as it panders to the multitude of teenagers lining up up at the box office with their parents’ disposable income.
That’s mainstream-movie watching. Fortunately, Houston is the fourth largest city in America, and, with that size and diversity, comes the thriving and varied alternative film scene. There are a number of venues, from restaurant-themed to art-driven, that break the mold of the typical multiplex swarming with loud teenagers.
Movie Taverns are theaters that offer real food and alcoholic beverages to the moviegoer, rather than the typical assortment of overpriced sweets and popcorn. There are only three in the Greater-Houston area locations inside the city.
Movie Tavern serves items such as burgers, buffalo wings and perhaps most notably, beer and wine. At the Tomball Parkway location, each seat in the theater sits in front of a table with a call button so that the waiter or waitress can be hailed at a moment’s notice.
The prices are reasonable, with not a single item over $10, with exception of the King Kong Burger, a double meat burger with all the trimmings that tips the scales at a whopping half-pound and comes with a side.
Many theaters also exist to service the market for films outside of the mainstream Hollywood market. Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts screens films daily and has won the ‘2008 Outstanding Award for Film Programming’ from the Houston Film Critics Society.
With a host of independent, documentary and foreign films, the MFAH offers a more cerebral movie going experience than whatever the major studios are trotting out.
Another theater offering an alternative to mainstream chains is the Aurora Picture Show, located at 800 Aurora St. This nonprofit cinema screens non-commercial film, video and other assorted media, Ticket prices are always $6, except for special events.
Houston, with its size and diversity, offers quite a wide range of alternative theaters and venues for anyone who is curious and motivated enough to search them out. This summer, there is no excuse to put up with the high prices, subpar cleanliness and teenage exhibitionism of the mainstream multiplexes.
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