FRIDAY…you have tonight and Saturday, to see the final shows of GREASE at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in VISTA. I have a few friends that saw it. One loved it. The other liked it, but said “It’s a lot different than the movie.”
In sports, the PADRES are playing the Seattle Mariners at Petco Park.
RYAN ADAMS, not to be confused with Bryan Adams, will be at the Magnolia Performing Arts Center in EL CAJON. He had a lot of legal troubles involving lots of accusations from lots of women, but if you’re a rocker, that doesn’t seem to cancel you the way it does in other professions, so he’s back on the road.
THE USED have been rockin’ for 25 years now, and they’re doing three nights at the House of Blues DOWNTOWN. Each night they’ll be playing one of their first 3 albums, so fans of alternative rock will want to check that out this weekend.
MORRIS DAY & THE TIME and SHEILA E. will be at the Starlight Theater at PALA CASINO.
LUCERO and THE MENZINGERS will be at the Observatory in NORTH PARK.
HAMILTON is still at the Civic Theater DOWNTOWN. But if you’re old school with your theater, you can catch Shakespeare’s humorous TWELFTH NIGHT at the Stagehouse Theatre at Grossmont College in EL CAJON, tonight and Saturday.
SATURDAY – if you like a lot of drinking with your baseball, OMBAC’s Over the Line Beer Fest and Tournament starts at MARINER’S POINT.
Of course, you can have a beer at PETCO PARK watching the PADRES win their second game against the Mariners.
The SAN DIEGO FC have a home game at Snapdragon Stadium vs Sporting Kansas City.
If you prefer little umbrellas in your fruity drinks, and are a parrot head, a JIMMY BUFFET tribute band will perform at the RAMONA SOUND STAGE.
If you prefer jam bands, a PHISH tribute, The Great Divide, is playing at Winston’s in OCEAN BEACH.
SUNDAY – the PADRES wrap up their series with the Mariners, with an afternoon game at 1:00 at PETCO PARK.
Jazz icon WYNTON MARSALIS & pianist CECILE LICAD, with a 10-piece ensemble, perform a tribute to Louis Armstrong.
At the MOVIES this weekend….
FRIENDSHIP - My wife and I had a blast with this movie, but it’s not for everyone. It’s a cringe comedy that can be off-putting, as we watch someone get nuttier and nuttier. The character Tim Robinson (I Think You Should Leave) plays is a lot like Michael Scott (Steve Carell) in The Office. At times you feel sorry for the sad-sack, but mostly you just wonder how in the world he was able to function in life. He has a seemingly good job, a beautiful wife (Kate Mara), which surprises you when you realize how incapable he is of making friends or acting even remotely normal. When he returns a package that was accidentally delivered to his house, he starts a friendship with that neighbor (Paul Rudd). That’s probably why a lot of critics will compare this to “I Love You, Man” but this takes such strange turns. Some of the bits they do are too over-the-top to be believable. And some people will grow tired of Robinson’s socially awkward character. I was fascinated with how he tries so hard, whether that’s talking to his teen son (Jack Dylan Grazer), helping his wife with her floral business, or wanting to join his neighbor’s punk band. And there’s a drug trip scene after a character licks a toad – that to me, is one of the most brilliant comedic moments you’ll get in a movie this year. I think others won’t appreciate it, though (as audiences are more used to those types of scenes the way Rudd did it in “Knocked Up” with Seth Rogen on mushrooms in Vegas). It’s amazing to think this is the directorial debut from Andrew DeYoung, who does a great job with zooming in for close-ups, some circle framing to end scenes, and other decisions he makes to introduce the absurdity. It just needed to be reigned in and a bit more focused. But there are plenty of big laughs. I was surprised my wife liked it more than I did. 3 stars out of 5.
Streaming to watch at home….
DUSTER is on Max, and it brings back Josh Halloway (LOST) in a J.J. Abrams show as a 1970s getaway driver for a crime syndicate. Any show named after a muscular car (the Plymouth Duster) has already piqued my interest.
MURDERBOT is on AppleTV+ and stars Alexander Skarsgard as an android who watches a lot of soap operas. And if android movies are your thing, check out “Companion” which is now streaming, and is one of my favorite movies of the year, or go back 10 years for “Ex Machina” with Oscar Isaac building sex robots. You won’t be disappointed.
DEAF PRESIDENT NOW! is also on Apple, and it’s a documentary about a civil rights movement in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university. It got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, so the critics liked it.