Geography Club (film)

Geography Club is an American comedy-drama film based on the Brent Hartinger novel of the same name. It was written by Edmund Entin, directed by Gary Entin, and stars Cameron Deane Stewart, Justin Deeley, Andrew Caldwell, Meaghan Martin, Allie Gonino, Ally Maki, and Nikki Blonsky.

Plot

Sixteen-year-old Russell is still going on dates with girls while having a secret relationship with football quarterback Kevin, who will do anything to prevent his football teammates from finding out. Min and Terese tell everyone that they're just really good friends. And then there's Ike, who can't figure out who he is or who he wants to be. Finding the truth too hard to hide, they all decide to form the Geography Club, thinking nobody else in their right mind would ever want to join. However, their secrets may soon be discovered and they could have to face the choice of revealing who they really are.

Cast

• Cameron Deane Stewart as Russell Middlebrook
• Justin Deeley as Kevin Land
• Andrew Caldwell as Gunnar
• Meaghan Martin as Trish
• Allie Gonino as Kimberly
• Ally Maki as Min
• Nikki Blonsky as Therese
• Alex Newell as Ike
• Teo Olivares as Brian Bund
• Dexter Darden as Jared Sharp
• Grant Harvey as Nolan Lockwood
• Marin Hinkle as Barbara Land
• Ana Gasteyer as Mrs. Toles
• Scott Bakula as Carl Land
• Wesley Eure as Mr. Kaplan
• Mike Muscat as a Deranged Homeless Man

Release

Geography Club premiered on April 27, 2013, at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The film received a limited theatrical release by Breaking Glass Pictures on November 15, 2013, and was also released digitally on iTunes, Amazon Video and VOD on the same day.

Reception

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 64% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 11 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10.^[1] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 57 based on 5 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[2]

Writing for the Huffington Post, John Lopez describes the film as entertaining and praises the themes as "universal and relatable," as well as for trying to define a "new normal" where homosexuality is accepted as an everyday thing.^[3]

Entertainment Tonight hails Geography Club saying that – "Every year sees the release of one film so culturally important it should be required viewing. This year, that film is Geography Club." The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) of the Philippine government gave the movie a PG rating and highly commends the movie as a "sweet and sensitive coming out, coming of age movie based on the first novel of the young adult series/play of the same name." ^[4]

Awards

Following is a list of awards that Geography Club or its cast have won or for which they have been nominated.^[5]