Exciting acting talent has been introduced to the big screen in the feature debut from director Molly Manners. Based on Rose Tremain’s 2007 book of the same name, coming-of-age comedy drama Extra Geography follows teenage besties Flic (Marni Duggan) and Minna (Galaxie Clear) through an eventful term at their all-girls boarding school in Yorkshire. Joint at the hip, the pair concoct a summer project to “fall in love” but their alliance is challenged when they audition for the student production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and only one of them gets the part they hoped for.
Friendships in your formative years can feel like the most important thing in the world, and this endearing naïveté is illustrated in Miriam Battye’s sharply observed script. Putting one another before boys or books, Flic and Minna have an almost telepathic connection and through this comes a lot of the film’s delightful deadpan humour. Neatly crafted production design captures the grassy-knees authenticity of the early 2000s high school experience, and a stellar indie soundtrack rolls with the gut-punches and teenage kicks of adolescence. As loyalties inevitably become somewhat divided, the pathos feels fresh and quietly moving.
Occasionally, a new face will come along and have a ‘magic in a bottle’ moment like Florence Pugh’s breakthrough in Carol Morley’s 2014 mystery drama The Falling, which also happened to take place in an English all-girls school. Lightning has struck twice with Duggan and Clear in this picture. Equally excellent, they bounce off each other with the comic timing of a duo that have been doing this for years. Great support comes from Aoife Riddell as their impressionable third wheel Phoebe and Alice Englert as the Miss Honey-esque teacher that becomes embroiled in the girls’ messy plans.
Britain’s answer to Booksmart, short story adaptation Extra Geography is a painfully funny portrait of female friendship, skilfully balancing its bold shades of darkness and light. In her first exam from the director’s chair, Molly Manners passes with aplomb and introduces two shining stars that seem destined for distinction.
Cinema Perspective 