A buzzy interactive experience is cropping up in San Antonio this summer as local festival grounds bloom to life with acres upon acres of sunflowers.
Through Sunday, July 18, Traders Village, located at 9333 Southwest Loop 410, will welcome visitors for the first time to its 10-acre Sunflower Field, complete with an abundance of various types of sunflowers, walking paths that saunter through the meadows, and even a winding sunflower maze for bloom buddies to romp through.
Open on Saturdays 10 am-6 pm and Sundays 10 am-5 pm, the Sunflower Field experience also promises acres of photo ops — as well as a professional photographer who can print photos onsite — and plenty of sightings of Buzz, the official “spokesbee” of the Sunflower Field.
Tickets for the Sunflower Field run just $7.99 for adults and kids age 3 and older, and include a wristband good for all-day visits to the flower fields. Kids 2 and younger get in free.
But amusement fans wanting to make hay while the sun shines should opt for the $14.99 combo tickets, which gain holders all-day access to the Sunflower Field plus all-day access to Traders Village’s family-friendly carnival rides — including the 128-foot-high Fleafall drop, the Pharaoh’s Fury swinging boat ride, and the antique carousel.
Parking is an additional $5 per car.
All ticket holders will also be able to check out Traders Village’s petting zoo and inflatable slide attractions. And for a few extra bucks, visitors can take a few shots with the absurdly entertaining apple cannon.
The Sunflower Field includes a winding maze flower lovers will be happy to get lost in.
Traders Village/Instagram
The Sunflower Field includes a winding maze flower lovers will be happy to get lost in.
Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.
That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.
Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.
Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.
The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.
The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.
Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.
Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.
