Unconventional romance examines relevant teenage issues

DEELEY AND CAMERON. Portray male star-crossed lovers in “Geography Club.”

The star-crossed lovers of Gary Entin’s “Geography Club” (showing next week, Feb. 5) have no trouble admitting their growing affection for each other—but, going public about it is another matter, because their love story is by no means “conventional”: Closeted Russell Middlebrook (Cameron Deane Stewart) is both brainy and brawny, and he’s comfortable staying “under the radar” as he struggles to find his sexual identity.

Russell’s troubles begin after he shares a secret kiss in the rain with Kevin Lord (Justin Deeley), the dreamy campus heartthrob he tutors, who wants to keep their budding romance under wraps—because small-town folks don’t expect the he-man quarterback of their high school football team to “swish.”

To avoid speculations, Kevin gets Russell, who’s a topnotch runner, on the football team, where he finds fame as the group’s nimble, new find.

The “best friends” cover allows the boys to keep seeing each other, but the increasingly aggressive machinations of hot-to-trot Trish (Meaghan Martin), the most popular girl in school, is beginning to freak Russell out. Imagine his panic when she coyly discloses that she’s ready to lose her virginity to him!

Cause for concern

Russell’s growing popularity also becomes cause for concern for the other members of the Geography Club, the secret support group organized by closeted gay teens and lesbians that he belongs to. Will its members stand behind Russell when his big, “pink” secret is exposed? Are they ready to turn their group into a haven for other outcasts, who need protection from bullies? More importantly, does Russell and Kevin’s love stand a chance?

Highly recommended by the MTRCB, the film explores the perilous and bittersweet landscape of teenage life as it examines a checklist of relevant and “relatable” themes—sexual identity, bullying, peer pressure, parental problems, class issues, etc.—without getting heavy-handed about them.

Easy on the eyes

It doesn’t hurt that its actors are as truthful in their portrayals as they are easy on the eyes. Moreover, it isn’t every day that you see and hear an audience swooning over and rooting for a same-sex romance. Indeed, times are truly a-changin’!

Entin puts a gender-bending spin on the formula popularized by John Hughes’ coming-of-age teen flicks in the ’80s, most notably “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles”—and it isn’t an accident.

He explains, “My vision for the film was to take subject matter told from an insider’s perspective and treat it with the commercial aesthetic of a classic John Hughes film.

“It is important for me to treat the love story of Russell and Kevin with all the bells and whistles that characterize heterosexual romances—like the rain sequence, which turns the boy-girl convention on its ear. It’s my way of saying that there’s no difference between straight and gay relationships. Love is love, after all!

“What struck me most about Brett Hartinger’s book, upon which the movie is based, is how cleverly its different themes are strung together, and how perceptive it is to define what drives a young adult emotionally.

“The film has something for everyone, because I believe that a movie that says something substantial should also be entertaining. If you walked away from it having had a good laugh and a good cry, we’d have done our job!”