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Movies

With the help of his girlfriend and burnout brother, a high school senior has 24 hours to salvage his botched application to Stanford in the comedy “Orange County.” Written by Mike White (“Chuck & Buck,” the TV series “Pasadena”), the film features a trio of Hollywood progenies: director Jake Kasdan (son of writer-director Lawrence Kasdan), and co-stars Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks) and Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek). Jack Black, Catherine O’Hara and John Lithgow provide comedic support. Opens Friday. Above, Hanks, left, Fisk and Kasdan.

Also: A mysterious creature terrorizes the French countryside in the period adventure “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” a mix of martial arts action and European art film. King Louis XV sends the unorthodox pairing of a scientist and his Iroquois blood brother to the rural province where the beast has been savagely killing women and children for years. Samuel Le Bihan and Vincent Cassel star. Opens Friday.

Theater

After a 10-year absence, noted playwright John Steppling returns to the Los Angeles theater scene with the American premiere of “Dog Mouth,” presented by Padua Playwrights Productions. Steppling will direct the drama, an exploration of North America’s dispossessed featuring Methedrine-driven criminal hobos, a quest for the ultimate fighting dog and a young woman’s deal with the devil. Opens Saturday at the Evidence Room in Los Angeles.

Music

Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to his podium with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday afternoon in L.A.’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with two large-scale works: Arnold Schoenberg’s symphonic poem “Pelleas and Melisande” and Brahms’ D-minor Piano Concerto, featuring soloist Helene Grimaud, left. The program repeats on Saturday and next Sunday.

Art

Artist Graham Nickson may live in New York, but his primary subject, sunbathers at the beach, is quintessentially Californian. “Graham Nickson: Dual Natures,” opening Saturday at Pepperdine University’s Frederick R. Weisman Museum in Malibu, will present 11 monumental paintings and 10 charcoal drawings that track the artist’s fascination with beach folks during the past 20 years.

Jazz

One of the most influential of the post-John Coltrane saxophonists, Charles Lloyd begins a three-nighter Friday at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood. Lloyd’s career has been marked by ups and downs, but he has recently emerged as one of jazz’s most creatively original voices.

Pop Music

Two survivors of the punk and post-punk wars are living proof that advancing years don’t necessarily lead to arthritic music. Mid-’70s British firebrand Graham Parker, below, is now a Woodstock resident and recently released a potent album, “Deepcut to Nowhere.” Meanwhile, former Pixies ringmaster Frank Black has evolved into an engaging eccentric. They team for shows at San Juan Capistrano’s Coach House on Thursday and West Hollywood’s Troubadour on Friday.