Best Bets / July 4-10

MOVIES

Director Paul Weitz and writer Adam Herz make their feature debuts with “American Pie,” an outrageous coming-of-age comedy about a group of male students who vow to lose their virginity by prom night. The ensemble cast features, from left, Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Chris Klein and Thomas Ian Nicholas. Opens Friday in general release.

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In Japanese filmmaker Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s fanciful “After Life,” the newly dead spend a week at a way station, somewhere between heaven and earth, to sift through their lifetime of memories and find one moment of pure joy. It opens Friday at selected theaters.

THEATER

A blues-playing trickster faces off with the children of the only musician who ever “out-licked” him, in “Thunder Knocking on the Door.” The musical fantasy by Keith Glover and Grammy Award-winner Keb’ Mo’, opens Saturday at the Old Globe’s Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in San Diego.

ART

The pottery, architecture and culture of Northern Mexico and the American Southwest from 1000 to 1400 AD will be highlighted in “Ancient Trails: Connecting the Gran Chichimeca” opening Saturday at the Southwest Museum. The exhibition will also include modern pottery from the village of Mata Ortiz, where artists continue to produce works in the ancient tradition.

MUSIC

Ten weeks of classical programming gets underway at the Hollywood Bowl’s 78th summer season when Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer returns to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two concerts Tuesday and Thursday. Eighteen-year-old Sarah Chang is soloist on Tuesday, playing the Bruch Concerto. Thursday, violinist Julian Rachlin will play the G-major Concertor for Thursday’s Mozart program.

JAZZ

The Lexus Jazz at the Bowl series features the all-star Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra in eight very different Hollywood Bowl concerts this summer. The very popular singer-pianist Diana Krall will be the star this Wednesday, performing swing standards with her trio and with the big band.

POP MUSIC

If you were worried that the absence of Smokin’ Grooves would mean a scarcity of rap on American stages this summer, well, don’t worry. Following the DMX/Jay-Z tour comes “All-Star Powerhouse,” featuring Eminem, DJ Quik, Ja Rule, Nas, Ma$e, Jermaine Dupri, Slick Rick, Master P and more on Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond.

VIDEO

Nick Nolte received an Oscar nomination and several critics’ awards for his powerful work in “Affliction” as an angry small-town sheriff with an abusive, alcoholic father (an Oscar-winning James Coburn). Paul Schrader wrote and directed this adaptation the Russell Banks novel. The film makes its video debut on Tuesday.