Simon Joyner “Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999″ Jagjaguwar Records Below the title “Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999″ on the latest Simon Joyner album is a picture of a grand, effeminate bedroom in which sits a young man, unshaven and with tousled hair. Read more...

We don’t mean to brag, but we think we’ve got ’em right this time. After going 7 for 10 and then 8 for 10 in our Oscar picks of the past two years, we’re predicting this is the year we nail everything. Read more...

Mr. Langtry selected a machete from the shelf and looked back at me. “Call me Denis,” he said. “Please, I’m asking you. You don’t have to call me Dad, just Denis.” His eyes turned back to examine the blade he held between us, and his never-trimmed eyebrows flared like two cats tensing to fight. Read more...

“Darwin’s Nightmare” Directed by Hubert Sauper International Film Circuit The cobbler’s children go barefoot in Tanzania. The seemingly harmless Nile perch fish is the largest source of income for the towns surrounding Lake Victoria. Read more...

“Conviction” NBC While shows like “Law & Order” and “NYPD Blue” dominated airwaves for two decades, the last five years have seen an explosion of procedural dramas. Read more...

This quarter, the UCLA Department of Theater decided to try something old and something new. The 16th-century French comedy “The Marriage of Figaro” by Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais opens today and will run in repertory through March 11 along with “Il Gelosi,” written and directed by visiting UCLA Professor David Bridel, in collaboration with graduate acting students. Read more...

Anyone who’s seen a light show or Disney’s “Fantasia” has witnessed the genre of art known as visual music ““ and probably without knowing it. Expanding the reach of visual music is precisely the goal of “Abstraction and Visual Music: Contemporary Animation from Los Angeles Artists,” to be screened by Melnitz Movies on Feb. Read more...