MIA “Arular” XL/Beggars US Pop music hasn’t seen an artist quite like MIA before. Part of it is the storybook child-of-globalization biography that has publicists everywhere drooling: Maya Arulpragasam, born to members of the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, forced to flee to London as a refugee, an art school graduate with a professed love for everything from her local grime scene and New York hip-hop to Brazilian baile funk and Puerto Rican Reggaeton. Read more...

“The Best in Youth” Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana Miramax Films You may think you are just too busy to watch a six-hour Italian movie with subtitles. Read more...

When you come back to Los Angeles from break, you never know exactly how your apartment will look or what your roommates have been up to while you were gone. Read more...

Odalan Bali Royce Hall March 26, 8 p.m. This night of traditional Balinese music and dance features a 25-member ensemble in addition to onstage dancers. If nothing else, the stage at Royce will be crowded. Read more...

“Guess Who” AMC Avco March 17, 8 p.m. If the rumors are true, then Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are soon going to have another mouth to feed; that’s just another reason to support Kutcher’s new film about a white guy looking to marry outside his race, to the displeasure of his bride-to-be’s sarcastic father. Read more...

As we all know what happens to even the best-laid plans of mice and men, sometimes things don’t quite work out the way you want them to. Read more...

Radar Bros. “The Fallen Leaf Pages” Merge Records Slowcore is an excuse for rock critics to praise molasses-paced music. With the exception of the genre-defining band Low, “slow” tends to be a euphemism for the word “boring,” making the useless “core” addendum irrelevant. Read more...