One of the two little known gems in the Hyde Park area of Chicago is Doc Films (http://docfilms.uchicago.edu/), a student-run group that shows a different movie every day most of the year. It's only $4 and there no ads besides a couple movie trailers. I've gotten so spoiled that I rarely go see first-run movies anymore.

I had a nice two-week run a while back where I got to see Breakfast at Tiffany's and Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen. I also like Master and Commander a lot, but my fave movie from last year was American Splendor, the semi-documentary about Harvey Pekar.

On Friday night, I went to see Gus Van Sant's Elephant, which is loosely based on the Columbine tragedy. I thought it was brilliant in places, but overall it seemed too similar to the tragedy, yet too loose with the facts.