By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Gary Entin
Starring: Ana Gasteyer | Cameron Deane Stewart | Justin Deeley | Meaghan Martin | Scott Bakula
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235902/combined
Michael says: “About thirty minutes into GEOGRAPHY CLUB, I started to get pretty uncomfortable. Based on a teen novel, Russell is a good-looking, athletic high-school student struggling with his sexuality. He‘s trying to meet someone online, but he’s nervous because he doesn’t want anyone to know. Turns out the guy he was flirting with online is the deeply closeted quarterback of the high school football team and when they find themselves sharing a kiss in the rain on a class field trip it doesn’t go unnoticed. Fortunately, the witness is Min, the nerdy, Asian girl who runs ‘the Geography Club,’ code for a small group of gay/lesbian/questioning kids who meet afterschool as an ad hoc support group. She invites the two closeted students to join the club, which Russell reluctantly does provided Min doesn’t reveal to anyone else what she saw.
“What ended turning me off in a big way was protagonist Russell. I viewed him as a privileged, well-liked character bemoaning the fact that he had a secret, while basically excelling at everything he did, and treating others without his advantages, reprehensibly… exactly the way he fears he will be treated. I realize this is the point and the source of his growth into an eventual ‘better person,’ and I suspect that the teen novel this film was based on probably handled the situation much more elegantly, but the film just rubbed me the wrong way. 2 cats”