Geography Club

This film tells the story of a young man in high school, who is coming to terms with his sexuality with help with his new friends in the Geography Club.

"Geography Club" shows that a low budget and no frills film can be heartwarming and fun to watch. The plot follows a 16 years old man called Russell, who meets a football jock. He is terrified of coming out, but with the right support he lives happily. It is a great coming of age story, with emphasis on self acceptance; and living your own life for yourself and not anyone else. It is a powerful film, especially the scene where the bullied boy invites Russell to sit down. "Geography Club" is a powerful and touching film, and it breathes of positivity. I really enjoyed watching "Geography Club".

My reproch, against me, remains being too old to real love this charming film. I discovered its title a couple years ago. I was tempted after first half of hour to renounce to see it - a film with and for teenagers , mix of sexual orientation confusion, friendship and compromises in name of it, bullying and a kiss as step to discover a not so conventional club.

But, part curiosity, part decent acting tempted me to see it and to discover a pretty coming of age story in fair - honest terms crafted, sensitive themes explored in honest manner and the play at cello as refuge, games of apparences and prejudices and a kitch wall fish.

I appreciated it for something easy to define as deep honesty about a special age, relation with others, self definition.

That's right: I'm seven minutes and forty-five seconds into this movie, and I'm already declaring it a 10/10.

Why? Because these kinds of gay movies are joyous, a breath of much-needed fresh air, and---I daresay---IMPORTANT.

Currently---and despite our much-lauded progressive attitudes---watching a "gay romance" is a bit like walking a Vietnam-era minefield: You're never quite sure if the characters and relationships you're rooting for are going to catch AIDS, be lynched, and/or commit suicide by the end... because they usually do. (Consider: The most mainstream "gay romance" at the time of this writing ends with one of our heroes being tire-ironed to death on the side of a freeway.)

So: "Living happily ever after" is one hell of a risky bet.

Admittedly, there's an undeniable place for such poignant, melancholy fare... but sometimes... sometimes... I just want to watch a cheesy, happy movie! Does that make me a bad person?! That was a rhetorical question: NO! No, it does not!

Dammit, I want to watch a movie where I know, going in, that the muffin I'm smiling for isn't going to suffer horribly and then die alone! No one likes minefields!

And seven minutes and forty-fives seconds in, this movie told me I wasn't in a minefield.

That is one HELL of a rare treat in the desolate, self-immolating landscape of despair to which we're so-often subjected.

Russell is gay and is in the closet, he is keeping his head down to study with the hope of living up to his parent's dreams and actually getting into Yale. He is also playing it straight by dating girls and being the wing man for his best friend Gunnar.

Then he goes on a field trip and gets entangled with Jock footballer Kevin. His secret is now out but he still isn't. What follows is a 'nice' coming of age tale that will have no surprises but is warm and human enough to satisfy most viewers.

This is not a sexathon either - nothing to frighten the horses here - there is some humour, there is some bullying and abusive behaviour but that is essentially a story about growing up and being honest about who you are. I have seen some very negative reviews of this and was initially put off from seeing it; after watching it I actually felt good for having seen it - so this is one I can easily recommend.

When everything about a movie is equally bad, it's interesting what stands out the most.

In this uniformly bad movie, it's the makeup. The actors are wearing SO MUCH MAKEUP, and there are so many extreme closeups in unnatural light and unnaturally saturated color photography, that all I see is the heavy lipstick, mascara, eyeshadow and blush on a guy who's supposed to be a macho jock and definitely is NOT supposed to be in drag. And that's on my TV - God knows what he would look like on the huge screen in a theatre, probably like the garishly made-up troll-woman on the old Drew Carey sitcom.

The heavy makeup is so distracting that it would completely sabotage any drama or comedy that's supposed to be going on, even if the writing, directing and acting weren't just as bad as the makeup. This is definitely one ONLY for dreamy-eyed adolescents and their middle-aged admirers, people who see life just as it looks in this movie - thick, cartoon-colored and all on the surface.