As part of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, filmmaker Julian Schnabel and writer Rula Jebreal were in town last night for a screening of their new film Miral. It's the kind of movie that garners buckets of senseless political backlash, a lot of it from people who have never even seen it and have no intention of doing so. Well, we saw it and found it unexpectedly moving. more ›

So many movies, so little time. How true. Unless you're a professional cinephile, there's no hope of seeing even a fraction of what looks interesting in any given year. We actually tallied up the numbers and between theatrical releases, film festival screenings, and DVDs we've seen 175 movies this year — barely any at all. And with the industry's practice of backloading releases, a veritable midyear drought suddenly giving way to an avalanche of multiple releases at year's end, it's harder than ever to keep up. more ›