Local filmmakers to present new comedy
CNGM Pictures, a group of indie filmmakers (many grads of Palatine's Fremd High School) present "Never Have I Ever," a comic romance about a wallflower's plot to hook up with his crush. "Growing Pains" actor Jeremy Miller co-stars. Also scheduled: CNGM's "Gnome Man's Land." Fundraising tickets cost $25; $30 at the door. Food, soft drinks provided. Cash bar available. Go to cngmpictures.com/events.
Facts: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, at the Hotel Indigo, 920 E. Northwest Hwy., Palatine.
Geneva Film Festival
The second annual Geneva Film Festival presents shorts, docs and features plus 10 workshops. Admission costs $10. Go to genevafilmfestival.org or call (630) 463-3864.
Facts: From 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, at five Geneva locations.
Let's not forget the Polish Film Festival in America at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge; at five Chicago-area theaters through Nov. 23. (773) 486-9612 or pffamerica.com.
"Synecdoche, N. Y."
Charlie Kaufman's surrealistically dense directorial debut is one step off the pier of convention into an abyss of bodily functions, tormented chronologies, name stars lurking in narrative nooks and an assault of metaphoric extragavances that deserves more than one viewing. A cutting-edge, maddeningly overstuffed look at the life of a neurotic theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who wants to make his life count before death. Rated R (language, nudity, sexual situations). 123 minutes.
At the Century Centre Cinema in Chicago, Renaissance Place Cinema in Highland Park and the Evanston CineArts 6.