Extra Geography

A film that mines reserves of tenderness in young female angst and cluelessness with loving empathy.

The road through year 10 may be rocky, but Manners is a confident guide – her film-making is splashy and stylish throughout, shrewdly conveying just how much one can learn, and break, in a year.

With bold narrative choices enhanced by immersive cinematography and confident direction anchored by powerful breakthrough performances, Molly Manners’ directorial debut is a compelling showcase of emerging talent.

The success of Extra Geography rides largely on Clear and Duggan who make a wonderful odd couple pair.

Overall, Manners’ feature debut is perfectly polished. Duggan and Clear are distinct talents who scream future stars (or, at worst, working talents for years to come). But as insightful as it all is as a portrait of those bumpy teenage years for young women, it does all feel a bit too familiar. Maybe even a little too safe and predictable.

In their scenes together, Clear and Duggan spark beautifully, navigating their characters’ emotional highs and lows with a mix of caustic wit and often moving vulnerability.

I appreciate that Manners and Battye are trying to add some extra flair to what is otherwise a fairly conventional growing-pains narrative, but too often Extra Geography seems located outside any map of the real world.