Netflix A-Z: Geography Club (2013)

We’re back with another Netflix A-Z! It was supposed to be a romance but I just wasn’t feeling it this weekend and the husband wasn’t down for another one of those so I have no idea how we landed on this one but it was on my list. I like watching teen movies and this one was definitely different. I have never heard of it before but there are some familiar faces in it.

Let’s check out Geography Club! 🙂

Geography Club (2013)

Director: Gary Entin

Cast: Cameron Deane Stewart, Justin Deeley, Meaghan Martin, Andrew Caldwell, Ally Maki, Teo Olivares, Alex Newell, Nikki Blonsky

At Goodkind High School, a group of students with varying sexual orientations form an after-school club as a discreet way to share their feelings and experiences.-IMDB

Geography Club is a decent teen comedy. Its kind of in the middle of the spectrum. There are many times that its obvious that the technical aspects of the movie need some help. It could have some sappy or clunky dialogue. The story’s flow is a little weird some times and even the scenes are a little awkward. However, the message its trying to send is absolutely commendable. It tries its best to highlight the teen issues especially of those that are hidden and scared to expose their sexual orientation or just who they are and how they feel because of fearing that they will become an outcast. With the different characters here, it introduces a gentle way of tackling the issues from deciding to stand up for who you are openly to tackling it in secret, whichever standpoint is in play.

While I think the script could’ve benefited from a little bit better dialogue and whatnot, I did enjoy this one in all its predictable glory. That is mostly because there was a lot of familiar faces to me. They aren’t big stars and yet they’ve done some memorable stuff in the past. First of all, it has to be the main guy’s love interest played by Justin Deeley who was seen in one of my favorite characters (even though rather shortly) in the CW series reboot of 90210. He is kind of the selfish character in Geography Club in the whole situation and maybe even a little sad because he plays the spectrum that is scared to lose what he has because of what others would say.

Moving on, two of the members of the Geography Club were in rather musically inclined movie/TV show. The girl is Nikki Blonsky who plays one of the girls in the Geography Club and she was in one of my favorite musical movies ever, Hairspray, playing the main lead, Tracy Turnblad. I took a second to breath in that fact, because I absolutely love her. The other plays another member called Ike who plays a similar sort of character for a season or 2 of Glee. As for the main guy, Russell is played by Cameron Deane Stewart who looks familiar and after some research, I realize that he was in Pitch Perfect for maybe a split second in the shower scene.

There really isn’t much to say about Geography Club. Its a young cast here and they did good in moving the message along. My main issue with it was how it was shot. Some scenes and the angles really made it a lot more sappy and cheesy than it should’ve been. It kind of made whatever it was trying to do somewhat in your face and I’m not a huge fan of that. However, I did end up caring for some of the characters here and watching Russell grow as he learned to embrace bravely who he was, regardless of its standing up for what he believes in or his orientation. Its a hopeful movie that sends a positive message to accepting others and highlighting certain high school issues that can occur.

Have you seen Geography Club?

We are starting Valentine’s Marathon with the next Netflix A-Z selection!
Can you guess what is H selection?