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When Peruvian superchef Gastón Acurio touched down in Chicago nearly two years ago he ushered in a new kind of environment for exploring his country’s food. Prior to that if you wanted to enjoy modern Peruvian cuisine’s unique alloy of Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, African, and indigenous influences, you went to one of a half dozen or so mom-and-pop places out in the neighborhoods, some of which excel at a number of things, but few of which consistently deliver on the great scope of what Peru, from mountain to sea, is capable of producing....

If Chicago’s film culture were more sensible, Oliver Laxe’s rapturously beautiful second feature, Mimosas, wouldn’t be playing at Facets Multimedia (where it screens for two more nights), but on every IMAX screen in the city. The chief pleasure of Laxe’s film is how it makes use of monumental locations in Morocco, setting the story against the grand splendors of mountains and wide-open deserts. The story of Mimosas is relatively simple, but the landscapes give it an epic sweep; they also make the story seem to exist outside of time, the eternal majesty of the setting overwhelming any momentary concerns....

Courtesy EIT! Everything Is Terrible! Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader’s daily Agenda page.

Q: I’m a recently divorced single mom and full-time student. I’m really beginning to hurt financially and have decided to start working as an escort. I am at a point of great emotional stability, happiness, and confidence–all reasons that led to my decision–and I’m surrounded by people who love me and won’t judge me. (Not that I will be telling most of them.) I’ve been seeing a man who I like, but I’ve made it clear that I am not committed to him and can see him only once a week....

I’d heard good things about Showtime’s Shameless over the years, and it certainly sounded relevant to my interests (Chicago boosterism and William H. Macy fandom). But there’s only so much time and DVR space in the world, so it slipped past me for a while. Its critically lauded 2014 season finally convinced me to get caught up prior to the season five premiere on January 11. As for the rest of the Gallagher clan: Lip picks up a summer construction job after finishing his first year of college; Ian’s cobbled together another unconventional family for himself; and the younger kids appear to have some woes of their own....

Last week, the BBC asked 62 film critics from around the world to each submit what they considered the ten greatest American movies of all time. The subsequent list is filled with canonical favorites, including Citizen Kane (which took the top spot), Singin’ in the Rain, and The Godfather, as well as a few surprise appearances—Groundhog Day checked in at number 71, and Steve McQueen’s recent 12 Years a Slave showed up at number 99....

Cook up and tie off—T2, the long-awaited sequel to Danny Boyle’s British black comedy Trainspotting, opens this weekend. Released in 1996, Trainspotting arrived in the U.S. as domestic heroin use was peaking, and its tale of five directionless Edinburgh lads, some of them avid junkies, connected with indie filmgoers like a spike into the main line. No movie ever made me want to do the drug more, not after Boyle married it to the irresistible bomp-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp-ba-bomp of Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life....

Q: I’ve always been a big believer in the common-sense obviousness that monogamy is hard. Additionally, I like the idea of my wife getting fucked. I don’t have any desire to be denigrated or emasculated; I just get off on the idea of her being satisfied and a little transgressive. Early in our relationship, we talked about monogamish guidelines: I’d like to be informed and consulted, and she would rather I kept mine to myself....

I took to the stage at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon, for a live taping of the Savage Lovecast on Easter weekend. Audience members submitted their questions on cards, but there were many we didn’t get to. So in this week’s column I’m going to reply to as many as I can. A: I’m tired of this debate, so consider this my final answer: So what if it is pee?...

Twitter sometimes feels like a Superfund site for toxic psychic energy, where misogynists, racists, homophobes, and assorted bigots gleefully broadcast their hate and disturbingly graphic death threats are handed out over minor perceived sleights that in pre-Twitter days may have demanded, at the most extreme, a flipped bird. Over a weekend where the acts of a woman-hating mass murderer and a hashtag meant to convert the situation into a teachable moment provoked outrageously misogynistic responses on social media that confirmed just how near the mainstream some of his views were, that feeling was particularly acute....

No need to break out a tux or gown; the Printers Ball is a casual celebration of the printed medium. Now in its tenth year, the event kicks off Saturday at 4 PM with readings by regulars of the Danny’s and Dollhouse series, Brain Frame artists doing live interpretations of comics and zines, printmaker Leah Mackin demonstrating printing and bookbinding, and folks from Press Bike rolling out prints in the parking lot....

Paul John Higgins PR vs. journalism Here’s troubling news for those of you who like being troubled. That’s not everyone, certainly, but I write a lot about media, and media types require daily vexation. Where the Pew report should concern us is here:

Mac and Me Remember Mac and Me, that soulless E.T. knockoff-cum-feature-length-McDonald’s-commercial from 1988? Neither did I, until I saw the new kids’ movie Earth to Echo, which may well be the Mac and Me of this generation. That’s the subject of this week’s medium-length review, but thankfully the current issue also has write-ups of movies we do recommend: Cartoons by John Hubley, a program of classic shorts by the pioneering experimental animators John and Faith Hubley; Snowpiercer, the English-language debut by South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (The Host, Mother); Tammy, a comic star vehicle for Melissa McCarthy; and Life Itself, Steve James’s documentary portrait of Roger Ebert....

It’s springtime, finally, and after weeks of stasis the Hot 100 is starting to turn over. While the top ten is still being firmly ruled by Pharrell’s juggernaut-like “Happy”, John Legend’s surprisingly unstoppable “All of Me,” and Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” (hanging tough after 34 weeks on the chart), a pair of Iggy Azalea tracks and the come-from-behind fourth single from the latest Paramore album are giving things a bit of a refresh....

In 2016, Philadelphia neo-shoegaze band Nothing released their second studio album, Tired of Tomorrow—a triumph of modern rock. Blending the wall-of-sound influence of massive-sounding 90s bands like Slowdive, Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine with crushingly personal lyricism and a gorgeous, melancholy sense of melody, Nothing took the musical elements they had been working with since they formed in 2010 and soared above and beyond it all. But the perfection of Tired of Tomorrow makes the band’s follow-up, the brand-new Dance on the Blacktop (Relapse), feel a disappointment by comparison....

With his consuming 85-minute drama The Wolf at the End of the Block, given a compelling Teatro Vista world premiere under Ricardo Gutiérrez’s air-tight direction, Chicago playwright Ike Holter shows he’s gloriously out of step with current trends among big-name, award-winning American playwrights. While like many of them he writes about pressing social issues, here the debilitating effects of police oppression on a majority-nonwhite community like Humboldt Park, he never wastes a moment, never lets his characters dawdle through extended demonstrations of their quirks, never diddles around the edges of his story in search of “interesting” but dramatically irrelevant encounters....

Andrea Bauer Macaulay Culkin (far left) and the Pizza Underground The Reader crew reports from Riot Fest’s much less disgusting second day. Alison Green Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas Molly Raskin: Day two of Riot Fest was full of surprises. Not only did I see a one-eyed dog in a pink dinosaur costume, I also learned that portable toilets can actually be well-maintained—and that people still really dig Dashboard Confessional....

At some point in the near future, Chance the Rapper will meet with Illinois governor Bruce Rauner to discuss funding Chicago’s public schools. (They were supposed to meet today, but the meeting got canceled because of the tornadoes in central Illinois.) Let’s start with the Chicago Public Schools. They’re broker than usual and looking to chop 20 days from the school-year, including 13 days of instruction, in part because Rauner vetoed a $215 million appropriation CPS had been expecting....

The Bar Issue 2014: everything old is new again Must visit: Violet Hour Wicker Park’s hidden Violet Hour is a dark, sumptuously appointed retreat from the harsh world outside, attended by nattily dressed barkeeps who exhibit a balletic facility with jigger, shaker, and glass. Under the remote guidance of “head intoxicologist” Toby Maloney, the seasonal cocktail menu employs house-made bitters, fresh juices and garnishes, and multiple types of ice in different shapes, sizes, and temperatures....

Under a canopy of trees in Portugal’s Quinta Da Conceiçao Park, Belgian architects Jan De Vylder, Inge Vinck, and Jo Taillieu spent hours entranced by youngsters hitting tennis balls against the bright coral walls of Fernando Távora’s modernist pavilion. Arrested by how the simple game transformed the strict horizontal planes of pink concrete, they contemplated the friction between architecture and daily life. As part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, they invite Chicagoans to re-create this game of tennis against landmarks around the city....