Movie Review: Geography Club (2013)

The Georgraphy ClubGeography Club

3.5 stars

Trust me, this Geography Club is not even remotely as boring as it sounds. This unique high school style comedy delves into some serious adult issues, while maintaining a good sense of humor.

The film “Geography Club’ is based on a best selling book written about 10 years ago. In this movie, Min (Ally Maki) invites Russell (Cameron Stewart) to join the schools Geography Club. However, this is no geography club. It’s actually a support group for gay students. As a twist, Russell is dating the high school quarterback Kevin (Justin Deeley) a still in the closet student who insists on keeping their relationship a secret.

The Geography Club does a good job of dealing with the struggles of a teenager discovering their sexuality in an open way. As the students are apparently going to the most homophobic school in the country, the support group becomes Russell’s one means of freedom, where he can be himself.

My main problem was that this movie tried a bit too hard to be PC. Honestly, when have you ever seen a high school club that just happened to have a representative from every single race…especially a gay representative for every single race? [more…]

Also, the movie stumbles through a few too many difficult scenes with no difficulty at all. Kevin gets Russell on the football team so they can spend time together. Wouldn’t you know it? Russell is a natural athlete and all the jocks think he is just plain awesome. He goes on a double date and is a massive chick magnet.

I guess the producers had to set him of for the fall.

Geography-Club-University-of-Utah

The movie still manages to send a good message without getting too heavy handed with the topic. This is important, as it is a movie aimed at adolescents, not adults. I also liked the fact the Russell’s family was actually accepting of his orientation, as opposed to doing the standard ‘no son of mine, get out of my house’ cliché.

Of course, the purpose of the movie is all about finding acceptance, so it’s not surprising that the Geography Club can’t stay in the Geography closet forever. At Russell’s urging, they all decide to accept who they are and come out, with mixed results.

GEOGRAPHY CLUB

As far as movies dealing with the subject go, this one is a bit of a light touch. The subject is dealt with maturely; however, there really doesn’t seem to be any major conflict. Most of the time, I was wondering why Russell was afraid to come out in the first place. It could be possible that the book was a bit dated, when you consider how much the world, and views on homosexuality have changed in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, gay marriage was nowhere near the political platform that it is now, DOMA was still in effect and the idea of having a high school just for gay and lesbian students was unheard of. The world has changed significantly since then and I think the screenplay should have been updated to reflect that.

In short, if you have a teenager who has questions, this movie is a safe, but not entirely realistic view of what it is to be a gay teenager. While sweet and funny, the Geography Club was a bit to light to be a major opinion changer.

Here is the move trailer, what do you think?