Things to do in Los Angeles today

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings to LEVEL in Downtown L.A. Known for excellent film choices and a steady supply of snacks and booze, Rooftop Cinema Club is your snazzy, comfortable and less stressful alternative to other outdoor movie screenings. You don’t even need to bring your own camping chair—Rooftop Cinema Club provides you with your very own comfy lawn chair (with optional blankets for purchase to up the coziness). And instead of listening to the movie over loudspeakers, you’ll get a set of wireless headphones so you never have to miss a word. Find the full schedule on their site, or in our outdoor movie calendar.

The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante with each edition of its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists. This October’s exhibition—the seventh such show—brings together works from 28 artists, spanning film, painting, theater, photography, sculpture and video, that engage with the city of Los Angeles. Highlights include Kelly Wall’s penny press and wishing well, plus racks of postcards of L.A. skies fabricated out of glass; Patrick Martinez’s East L.A.–inspired cinder block wall, adorned with Mayan murals and neon trim (as well as another neon sign that reads “Agua is LIFE, NO ICE”); and re-creations and photo documentation of the late Alonzo Davis’s freeway murals from the 1984 Olympics. Before you even step inside, you’ll notice Alake Shilling’s Buggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A., which, yes, is a giant inflatable bear driving a car that’s careening toward the Glendon Avenue corner of the Westwood museum.

When I first stepped foot inside of this exhibition of decommissioned Confederate monuments and reflective contemporary art pieces, I was taken aback by the scale of it all. I’d seen the installation photos of the side-by-side statues of Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee on horseback, but as I craned my neck up at these towering tributes, they felt awe-inspiring in the most dreadful meaning of the phrase. Most Angelenos don’t need to be convinced of the immoralities of the Confederacy—but most likely haven’t been forced to come face-to-face with such Civil War iconography either. “Monuments,” displayed almost entirely at MOCA’s Little Tokyo warehouse with a single Kara Walker installation at the Brick in East Hollywood, presents tangible proof that these monuments removed from public view over the past decade were not simple, somber remembrances for the recently deceased, these were larger-than-life celebrations of the Confederacy forged in the Jim Crow era and often financed by folks seeking to twist its history. Works from 19 artists respond either directly or thematically to the many statues on display, or in some cases physically alter them: Bethany Collins’s Love is dangerous chisels pieces of the granite pedestal of a Stonewall Jackson monument into Carolina rose petals. Other graffitied or paint-splattered statues speak for themselves: The Robert E. Lee monument at the center of 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia resides...

Japan House Los Angeles is bringing an exhibition of shokuhin sampuru—hyper-realistic food replicas that have crossed over from marketing tool to art form (think Is It Cake? but cultural)—to Los Angeles for the first time. See mouthwatering faux food representing each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, from coffee house parfaits to izakaya skewers, as well as Chinese and Western cuisine, and try your own hand at food presentation by filling a bentō box yourself.  

Don’t go in the water, but do go to the Academy Museum to see the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster, Jaws—which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The museum was already home to the last surviving model shark from filming, but now you can go behind the scenes and see some 200 original objects from the film across multiple galleries. Some highlights: a re-creation of the Orca fishing boat, the dorsal fin used both in Jaws and its sequels, costumes worn by the central trio and a room full of vintage film posters and merch promoting the film. There are interactive elements, too: You can have your own Chief Brody dolly-zoom moment (and see the lens used to film the famous shot), play the iconic John Williams two-note score and control a replica of the mechanical shark.

Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or skeptic, you’re likely to get teary at the onstage version of The Notebook, which revisits Allie and Noah’s love story live. Based the Nicholas Sparks novel, here the tale is turned into a musical, with music and lyrics by singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Read Time Out theater critic Adam Felman’s take on the Broadway production here.

Anonymous feminist art collective the Guerrilla Girls—whose members gained notoriety for donning gorilla masks and fighting the patriarchy—is coming up on its 40th anniversary, and the Getty Center is marking the occasion with a behind-the-scenes look at the group. See photography, protest art and the group’s famed posters—sporting statistics, bold visuals and satirical humor—that showcase the tactics the members used to demand recognition for women and artists of color. The Guerrilla Girls have even created a newly commissioned work for the exhibition. And you can add your own mark on the “graffitti wall” installation, giving visitors a creative outlet for their complaints about the world today.  Accompanying programming throughout the run of the show will include a conversation between the Guerrilla Girls and author Roxane Gay, a feminist Valentine’s Day mail art workshop, cocktail receptions with the exhibition curators, tours and more.

Most of the year, Level 8’s rooftop bar, Golden Hour, is a poolside spot that channels the Copacabana. But over the holidays, it transforms into Winter Hour, a pop-up immersive winter wonderland outfitted in icicle lights, festive decor, faux snow and s’mores stations—and still boasting stunning views of DTLA. Don your après-ski or “Santa Baby” best and head to the top of the Moxy hotel. Your ticket includes a welcome drink—choose from a seasonal cocktail or a ski shot. For a more exclusive experience, spring for a cozy fire pit or intimate igloo. 

The Skirball’s latest pop culture exhibition takes a deep dive into the six-decade career of legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. You might know him as the co-creator of Captain America, Black Panther, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and some of the Marvel universe’s most cosmic characters. But did you know he was also a first-generation Jewish American born to immigrant parents, World War II veteran and family man who split his time between New York and Los Angeles? The exhibition only occupies a few small galleries, but it’s stuffed with information about Kirby’s life, as well as pristine prints of issues plus his original comic illustrations—many on view for the first time. It’s not just a Marvel showcase, either: You’ll find some of the work Kirby did for DC, plus personal collages, a drawing he gave to Paul and Linda McCartney, and a fantastic reproduction of a costume he designed for a UC Santa Cruz production of Julius Caesar. Though not explicitly framed this way, the exhibition also presents a clear-as-day retort to any contemporary fans who decry comic book stories today as too “political”: Marvel has been political from the very start. Kirby’s cover for the first issue of Captain America features Cap punching Hitler—a full year before America would break its isolationist policies and enter WWII. The fifth issue follows Captain America in a battle against the German American Bund, a domestic Nazi organization that staged an infamous...

Robert Therrien’s Under the Table has long been one of the most popular pieces in the Broad’s collection (you know the one—the giant table and chairs that you ask your friend to snap a photo of as you stand underneath). Well now the museum is hosting the largest-ever solo exhibition of the artist’s work, displaying more than 120 pieces, including many that have never been shown in museums before. Expect more huge housewares and striking works, plus some intimate drawings and surprises from the late L.A.-based artist. The specially ticketed show will fill the first-floor galleries through April 5, 2026.