THE STORY – In an English girls boarding school, two teenage best friends grapple with the challenges of girlhood — friendship, boys, studies, and growing up — and embark on their school project, falling in love.
THE CAST – Marni Duggan, Galaxie Clear, Alice Englert & Aoife Riddell
THE TEAM – Molly Manners (Director) & Miriam Battye (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 94 Minutes
Ah, adolescence. It’s a confusing and frustrating time for everyone, but it’s also full of rich discoveries and so many beautiful moments. It’s no wonder that so many filmmakers explore this era in their debut films, including Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”), and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Love & Basketball”). Molly Manners joins the group with her directorial feature debut “Extra Geography,” which takes plenty of influences from “Booksmart” and “Lady Bird” with a gorgeous English countryside setting similar to “Saltburn.” Manners hits on all the emotional highs and lows that come with friendship, love, and self-discovery; though screenwriter Miriam Battye does a bit of a disservice with some of the more silly scenarios. However, they knock it out of the park with an emotional finale that hits like a gut punch that so many women will relate to.
Flic (Marni Duggan) and Minna (Galaxie Clear) excel in almost every way, as they earn high marks at their posh English prep school and become total superstars on the lacrosse field. The colorful and humorous montage at the beginning of the film (which gives off Wes Anderson vibes) clues us into just how in sync these besties are and how they keep certain secrets from each other, from how they use the same highlighters for their work materials to using the same products while on their periods (although only one of them is actually using them). They have their eyes set on big Ivy League dreams, but they’re worried their already impressive CVs aren’t going to be enough. When they learn of an upcoming school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which will feature students from the nearby boys’ school, it inspires the teens to do a bit of extra credit and try their hand at love.
Instead of choosing one of the boys to pursue, as these two continuously share that they’re not interested in them, they opt for their unassuming geography teacher, Miss Delavigne (Alice Englert). She is entirely ignorant of the fluttery eyes and longing looks from the pair sitting in the front row of her classroom, which makes these early scenes humorous. There’s also no acknowledgement or discussion between the two of them about their sexualities, although Flic appears more invested in all of this than Minna, who has been getting close to one of the boys in the play.
Newcomers Duggan and Clear lead this film with so much confidence and bring the full spirit of impressionable teens to their performances. As besties, they support each other through thick and thin, and even though they have fairly ridiculous conversations about their futures, it’s so fun to watch them in the naive phase of life. However, as they go on their romantic self-discovery journey, they get to dig into some really emotional territory. As their interests start to change and they aren’t aligned as they usually are, it introduces a newfound tension between the two of them that, at their current stage of life, they aren’t fully equipped to talk about and understand. It’ll bring back so many memories for those who went through similar growing pains with close childhood friends, many of those relationships fading out without much explanation. They bring so much authenticity to every turn in this film, especially Duggan, who bears the brunt of her own developments and her friend’s. Much credit also belongs to Battye’s screenplay in these moments, bringing out subtleties in how these characters express themselves and showing how one is ready to grow up faster than the other. Seeing how comfortable Minna is with her male counterparts, while Flic is too aggressive and awkward around boys, gives so much insight into their current stage of life.
At the same time, however, Battye’s screenplay tends to veer into silly or unserious territory, taking away from the great emotional work in other parts. The teacher storyline is one of them that, while it does open up Flic’s eyes in many ways, it doesn’t bring much excitement to the screen. It could be because of Miss Delavigne’s bland personality, but also because Battye doesn’t explore much with this character, other than that she’s from New Zealand. When a pivotal moment occurs toward the end of the film, it totally comes out of nowhere and raises so many questions. However, what happens to Flic and Minna’s friendship after this scene is so devastating. The raw emotions that these two performers show in the final 10 minutes are so impactful that it further shows just how effective those portions of the screenplay are compared to others. Additionally, as exciting as the cinematography is at the start of the film, it becomes quite repetitive when the same establishing shot of a “Saltburn”-esque manor is used over and over again.
“Extra Geography” is at its best when it explores true and confusing emotions among female friendships and less so when it veers into other storylines. Manners and Battye have the foundation for a truly beautiful film, but they just needed a bit more editing to hone their focus. But the MVPs are newcomers Duggan and Clear, who perfectly capture the complicated nature of young women and how heartbreaking growing up can be. It’s only their first film, but hopefully we’ll see more of these performers in the future.
