Best Bets / SEPTEMBER 19-25

MOVIES

Lawrence Kasdan’s comedy “Mumford” stars Loren Dean in the title role as a psychologist who sets up shop in a small town and who has a surprising impact on the community. He has another surprise in store for them as well. Jane Adams, Ted Danson and Hope Davis co-star. Opens wide Friday.

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“Double Jeopardy” stars Ashley Judd as a woman framed for the murder of her husband who emerges from prison determined to locate her son and solve the mystery that destroyed her life. In doing so, she poses a challenge to her cynical parole officer, Tommy Lee Jones. It opens wide Friday.

ART

Artist Kara Walker explores the racial and sexual legacies of slavery in a new installation composed of paper cut-out silhouettes opening Wednesday at UCLA’s Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center.

THEATER

David Hyde Pierce, Emmy Award-winner for “Frasier,” heads the cast in “The Boys From Syracuse,” the Rodgers and Hart musical romp with book by George Abbott, based on Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” The semi-staged production is presented by Reprise! Broadway’s Best in Concert, at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. The play opens Wednesday.

MUSIC

Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra open their millennial season Saturday night in Royce Hall, UCLA. The inaugural program, with American baritone Jubilant Sykes as soloist, includes an Elegy by composer in residence Kenneth Frazelle. Tuesday, Heiichiro Ohyama conducts a Mozart program as first concert in the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra’s year.

Video

Written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, “The Matrix” is a wild, Alice-tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole, futuristic cyber thriller. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss and Laurence Fishburne star in this box office hit that features cutting-edge visuals and action sequences. The film arrives in video stores Tuesday.

Pop Music

You’ve heard of the killer bees. . . . Now get ready for the killer A’s, as in Alanis and Amos. That’s Morissette and Tori, two of the most formidable females in ‘90s pop. The singer-songwriters have pooled their resources and drawing power on a North American concert tour that concludes on Saturday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

DANCE

Directed by Anatoly Kvasov, the 63-year-old Don Cossacks Song and Dance Ensemble of Rostov performs regional Russian specialties twice on Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. Perhaps the greatest of these specialties isn’t dancing but choral singing of startling force and richness, with folk polyphony often adding extra spice.

JAZZ

The Santa Barbara International Jazz Festival has expanded to five days (starting this Wednesday) with concerts at the Lobero Theatre and Leadbetter Beach. Among the many performers are Igor Bril, Mike Stern, Kenny Burrell, the Phil Norman Tentet, Lavay Smith, Mose Allison, Tito Puente and Bill Berry’s Big Band to name just a few.