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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the first big blockbuster of 2016, opens this Easter weekend, and a giant, sustained promotional push seems to guarantee that it will clean up at the box office. Having successfully revived the Superman franchise with Man of Steel (2013), director Zack Snyder turns his attention to the more recent superhero conflict between Superman and Batman. I have a big problem with movies that fictionalize actual events, because inevitably things are distorted to make them more dramatic....

Michael Gebert The Izakaya at Momotaro Like comrade Sula, whose review of Bucktown’s new Izakaya Mita went live last week, I’ve long had an interest in the idea of the izakaya, the Japanese bar with a menu of compatible drinking foods, though my divergent experiences often left me confused about what izakaya fare typically was. So when Momotaro’s main floor opened in October, I was eager to hear what reviewers would think of the food at its downstairs izakaya with a separate kitchen, set to open a week or two later....

Gethsemane Garden Center 5739 N. Clark 773-878-5915 gethsemanegardens.com Runner-Up:

We Charge Genocide wechargegenocide.org When the United Nations Committee Against Torture convened for its quadrennial hearings last November, the voices of Chicago activists were loud and clear. Several groups with local connections traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present evidence on police torture to UNCAT. Among them was We Charge Genocide, a volunteer-run grassroots organization that sent eight youth delegates to present evidence from its 2014 report “Police Violence Against Chicago’s Youth of Color....

Michael Gebert Sinangag (garlic rice) with igado, binagoongang baboy, and papisik (chicken in salt and lemongrass) Filipino food continues to make inroads into the mainstream in Chicago, though it’s still a long way from the near-universal acceptance of Thai food or sushi. If you want to get a taste of another side of the cuisine, sign up for Filipino Kitchen’s No Guts No Glory dinners this Friday and Saturday at Ampersand, the pop-up space next to Kinmont....

American Blues Theater presents the Chicago premiere of this 2016 play by James Lecesne (best known as screenwriter of the 1994 film Trevor and cofounder of the Trevor Project, an organization focused on suicide prevention among LGTBQ youth). In this engaging work of theatrical storytelling, originally performed off-Broadway by Lecesne himself, ABT ensemble member Joe Foust portrays multiple roles under Kurt Johns’s astute direction. The anchor character is Chuck DeSantis, a hard-boiled, middle-aged detective in a small working-class seaside town in New Jersey, who is investigating a missing person report that, tragically, turns into a homicide case....

In 1987, free-jazz originator Ornette Coleman named an album In All Languages; fellow alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, who began his career around 15 years later, seems to have taken that title as a challenge to be met at every turn. On his own records, Lehman has crossbred jazz with spectral and minimalist composition, English and Senegalese rap, and electroacoustic improvisation. As a sideman, he has lent his pungent tone and thoughtful responsiveness to the music of artists as diverse as Anthony Braxton, Jason Moran, and Meshell Ndegeocello....

Courtesy of Alexander Duvel Andy’s Music, soon to be Worlds of Music Chicago Last week, we reported on local institution Andy’s Music changing hands and turning into Worlds of Music Chicago. Andy Cohen, who currently owns the Roscoe Village shop—which specializes in a huge variety of exotic musical instruments from all over the world—decided he would be closing its doors this summer. Longtime manager Alexander Duvel and his wife Suzzanne Monk have stepped up, and with the help of some investors and a crowdfunding campaign, are going to buy the shop and keep it alive....

In this day and age, police violence—particularly against African-Americans, LGBTQ people, youth, people with mental illness, and undocumented immigrants—is impossible to ignore. As people who have little personal experience with these tragedies become conscious of the frequency and pervasiveness of assaults and killings by law enforcement officers, some are starting to wonder: In an emergency, are there alternatives to calling the police? “The content here can really push us and our boundaries, and our understanding of safety, and therefore it can lead us to some difficult conversations,” Steph, one of the workshop leaders who didn’t want to be identified by her last name, told the group....

For the fourth year in a row, Barcelona-based guitarist Aaron Feder brings his Alma Afrobeat Ensemble on a U.S. tour. The group, which Feder founded in Champaign-Urbana in 2003, consists of members from several nations, and as is customary when they travel in the States, they’re joined by their American touring musicians—Matthew Engel on keys and backing vocals, Cody Jensen on percussion, Joshua Thomson on alto sax, Eddie Quiroga on trombone, and Dr....

American composer Carl Stone has been making sample-based music for decades, but his recent albums Baroo and Himalaya (his first solo releases in 12 years) show that he’s still refining his craft. These days he primarily deals with what composer John Oswald christened “plunderphonics”—meticulously cutting up samples of music from around the world and transforming them into evocative new pieces. Stone has experimented with this technique in the past, such as on his 1990 composition “Mom’s,” but his latest results are far more emotive and technically impressive....

Glazed & Infused goglazed.com Runner-Up: Stan’s Donuts & Coffee

All Day Tire Shop If you’re a car owner in Chicago, one thing is inevitable: when spring hits and the streets are riddled with potholes, you’re going to smash into one of these fissures and blow a tire. (And once fall rolls around and those potholes remain unfilled, you’ll probably rip up another one.) All Day Tire Shop, a bare-bones, cash-only storefront on the corner of Wolcott and Division, is the best way to solve this problem....

Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times Media Keiana Barrett says she wants to oust Seventh Ward alderman Natashia Holmes but isn’t using armed private investigators to help her do it. Keiana Barrett says she didn’t send guys with guns to talk to people supporting her opponent. Holmes was appointed alderman by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2013, after predecessor Sandi Jackson and her husband, former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., were convicted of misusing campaign funds....

Local synth wizard Beau Wanzer formed outre club-music group Mutant Beat Dance a decade ago with house producer Melvin Oliphant III (aka Traxx), and in a recent interview with music site Strange Sounds From Beyond, he likens their work to the films of twisted, cheeky B-movie horror director Frank Henenlotter. “I show up with my deformed Siamese twin brother attached to my waist and Melvin tries to pry it off me,” Wanzer says....

I’ve often wondered: Who is the king of Hunanese-style dry hot pot in Chicago? Until last March there was no answer to the question. Chen was born in Jiangxi, the province next to Hunan, but he attended university in Beijing before earning his PhD at Ohio State. He currently has locations in San Diego, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale, California; Dallas; and Bellevue, Washington, across Lake Washington from Seattle (he’s opening another in the latter city next month)....

Tango Sur Runner-Up: Irazu

Urban Pooch Bark Bark Club Finalists: Stay Dog Hotel, Pooch Hotel, Dogaholics Service Center