''Geography Club'' is a 2013 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by Gary Entin from a screenplay by Edmund Entin, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by

Brent Hartinger Brent Hartinger (born 1971) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his novels about gay teenagers. Early life Hartinger was born in 1971 in Washington state and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. He earned a bachelor's ...

. The film stars

Cameron Deane Stewart Cameron Deane Stewart (born April 8, 1991) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films '' Geography Club'', ''Pitch Perfect'', and ''Dirty Teacher'' as well as his role as Steven in the television teen sitcom '' iCarly''. Career ...

Justin Deeley Justin Deeley (born February 1, 1986) is an American actor and model. He is known for his roles on the television series '' 90210'' and ''Drop Dead Diva''. Career Deeley played the recurring role of California cowboy Austin Tallridge in the f ...

Meaghan Martin Meaghan Jette Martin () (born February 17, 1992) is an American actress and singer known for her work in film, television, and theatre. She is best known for her starring role in the ABC Family television series, '' 10 Things I Hate About You'' ...

Allie Gonino Allie Gonino is an American actress and singer. She is known for her regular role as Laurel Mercer in ''The Lying Game'' and her recurring role as Michelle in ''10 Things I Hate About You'', both of which were ABC Family series. Gonino was a mem ...

Nikki Blonsky Nicole Blonsky (born November 9, 1988) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and internet personality. She is known for playing Tracy Turnblad in the film ''Hairspray'' (2007), for which she won two Critics' Choice Awards and received nominati ...

, Andrew Caldwell,

Marin Hinkle Marin Elizabeth Hinkle (born March 23, 1966) is an American actress. Among many television and movie roles, she is best known for playing Judy Brooks on the ABC television drama ''Once and Again'', Judith Harper-Melnick on the CBS sitcom ''Two an ...

Ana Gasteyer Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1996 to 2002. She has since starred in such sitcoms as ABC's ''Suburgatory,'' TBS's '' People of Earth'', NBC's ' ...

, and

Scott Bakula Scott Stewart Bakula (; born October 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in two science-fiction television series: as Sam Beckett on ''Quantum Leap'' and as Captain Jonathan Archer on ''Star Trek: Enterprise''. For ''Quantum L ...

. It premiered on

ABC Family The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...

as a world premiere movie.

Plot

Russell is sixteen-years-old and is going on dates with girls. But he’s recently started falling for football quarterback Kevin. When Min stumbles across Russell and Kevin kissing for the first time during a school trip, she decides to invite Russell to an LGBT support group in the school. This group meets in a classroom regularly and masquerades as a Geography Club. The club consists of a small number of students including Min and Therese who tell everyone that they are just really good friends when in reality this is not the case. There is also Ike who can’t quite figure out who he really is. Russell gets invited to a meal at Kevin’s parents house after a great football match. The meal is awkward due to the fathers questioning and the guys feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Russell’s best mate Gunnar gets Kevin to go on a trip with some girls. He’s upset that they aren’t as close as they were and knows he’s acting weird. Whilst they are hanging out, the girls try to come on to Russell. He leaves and walks home by himself messaging Kevin asking for a lift home, confiding in his worries. As the weeks go by the Geography Club members grow closer supporting one another. The group chastises Russell when he bullies one of the other club members due to peer pressure from classmates. Rumours have spread that Russell is a “homo” and he’s been kicked off the football team. Min suggests that the club finally go public which means they will all be outed. Kevin meets Russell to apologies for him being kicked off the team. Russell tells Kevin he should join the Geography Club but Kevin freaks out saying he can’t. He wants to stay in the closet, play football and be ‘normal’. Russell gives Kevin an ultimatum. Either turn up tomorrow at the club or they should go their separate ways. Gunnar and Kevin make amends and the club go public welcoming new people. Kevin watches on from a distance not feeling able to attend. Russell stands up and welcomes students to the first ever Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) meeting.

Cast

as Russell Middlebrook *

as Kevin Land * Andrew Caldwell as Gunnar *

as Trish *

as Kimberly *

Ally Maki Ally Maki Matsumura (born December 29, 1986), known professionally as Ally Maki, is an American actress and model. She portrayed Jess Kato in the TBS comedy series '' Wrecked'' and the voice of Giggle McDimples in ''Toy Story 4''. Career Maki ...

as Min *

as Therese *

Alex Newell Alex Eugene Newell (born August 20, 1992) is an American actor and singer. They are known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series ''Glee'' and Mo on ''Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist''. Newell also starred as Asaka in the Broadway ...

as Ike * Teo Olivares as Brian Bund *

Dexter Darden Dexter Darden is an American actor, best known for playing the role of Walter Hill in '' Joyful Noise,'' and Frypan in the ''Maze Runner'' film series. Personal life Dexter was engaged to singer/actress JoJo, they split in November 2022 ...

as Jared Sharp *

Grant Harvey Grant Harvey (born June 30, 1984) is an American actor who is known for starring in films and television series such as '' Animal Kingdom'', '' The Crossing'', ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'', '' Thumper'' and ''Billy Boy''. Early ...

as Nolan Lockwood *

as Barbara Land *

as Mrs. Toles *

as Carl Land *

Wesley Eure Wesley Eure (born Wesley Eure Loper; August 17, 1951) is an American actor, singer, author, producer, director and educator. He is best known for appearing as Michael Horton on the American soap opera ''Days of Our Lives'' from 1974 to 1981, dur ...

as Mr. Kaplan *

Mike Muscat Mike Muscat (born May 22, 1952) is an American actor. He has played an assortment roles in various television shows, including ''Totally Outrageous Behavior'' and ''The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''. Career One of Muscat's earliest r ...

as a Deranged Homeless Man

Release

''Geography Club'' premiered at the

Newport Beach Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival have permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival beg ...

on April 27, 2013. The film received a limited theatrical release by Breaking Glass Pictures on November 15, 2013 and was also released digitally the same day on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pri ...

and VOD.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film holds a 67% rating based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 57 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Writing for ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', 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. ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...

'' hails ''Geography Club'' saying, "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 (English: "For Intelligent and Responsible Viewing") , employees = More than 33 , chief1_name = Diorella Maria Sotto-Antonio , chief1_position = Chairperson , agency_type = Film and television classification , parent_agency ...

(MTRCB) of the Philippine government gave the movie a PG rating and highly commends the film 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."

Awards

Following is a list of awards that ''Geography Club'' or its cast have won or for which they have been nominated. ;Won *

L.A. Outfest Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival ...

** Audience Award – Best Feature Film ;Nominated *

** Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role –

Glaad GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

** Outstanding Film – Limited Release

Home media

Breaking Glass Pictures released ''Geography Club'' on DVD on March 25, 2014.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 2235902, Geography Club 2013 films 2013 comedy-drama films 2013 independent films 2013 LGBT-related films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2010s high school films 2010s teen comedy-drama films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American independent films American teen comedy-drama films American teen LGBT-related films Films based on American novels Films based on young adult literature Films shot in Los Angeles Gay-related films LGBT-related comedy-drama films LGBT-related coming-of-age films Shoreline Entertainment films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films