Best Bets

Movies

“Psycho,” Gus Van Sant’s re-creation of the Hitchcock classic, stars Vince Vaughn as motel keeper Norman Bates. With Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen (right) and William H. Macy among others checking in, it opens in general release on Friday.

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The English drama “Little Voice” stars Jane Horrocks as a young woman who barely speaks yet in secret can impersonate the singing voices of a wide range of classic pop singers. The film, which also features Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn and Ewan McGregor, opens Friday at selected theaters.

Theater

“The Last Session,” the off-Broadway musical hit that scored at the Laguna Playhouse earlier this year, opens Saturday at the Tiffany Theater in Hollywood. By Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin, it looks in on a singer’s final recording session with friends, and an unexpected stranger who becomes an emotional catalyst.

Music

Beginning a two-week engagement with the L.A. Philharmonic, former music director (1962-78) Zubin Mehta returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday through Saturday nights to lead the orchestra in Mahler’s massive Ninth Symphony. Next week, he conducts Messiaen’s “Oiseaux exotiques” and “Couleurs de la cite celeste” as well as Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole.”

Art

LACMA will present an open house Saturday honoring the 10th anniversary of the Pavilion for Japanese Art, the exotic Japanese-flavored building, above, fashioned with translucent walls, natural lighting, tranquil interior pools--and where the widely revered Price Collection of Japanese Art is now on display.

Pop Music

Hip-hop dominates the charts, but rap has been a touch-and-go proposition as a concert attraction. The Hip-Hop Unity Festival, planned for Friday at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, bucks the trend with grand ambition. Among the all-star lineup: Shaquille O’Neal, DMX, Run-DMC and Warren G.

Jazz

Phil Norman’s Tentet brings back the sound of 1950s West Coast Jazz this Tuesday and Wednesday at Catalina’s. The cool-toned, swinging music, with charts (many by Bob Florence) that make the group sound like a larger band, features such sidemen as trumpeter Carl Saunders and pianist Florence.

Video

Both Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins wield a sword and crack a whip with great panache as the dashing incarnations of the Latino hero Zorro in the vastly enjoyable swashbuckler “The Mask of Zorro.” Catherine Zeta-Jones also stars in this summer hit, which leaps into video stores on Tuesday.