When ultra-posh, Brit high-schoolers Flic (Marni Duggan) and Minna (Galaxie Clear), supposed best friends (forever) at the center of Extra Geography, BAFTA Award-winning director Molly Manners’s (One Day, Lazy Susan, In My Skin) splendid feature-length debut, decide to undetake a summer project, they cheekily decide on “love,” as in “falling in love,” new, uncharted territory for them both.
It sets them on an unexpected path of self- and other-discovery typical of coming-of-age stories, albeit in a quirkily delivered, sometimes droll, sometimes dry, always seriocomic fashion.
Ultimately, their decision, born out of a combination of hubris, naivete, and an overwhelming eagerness to exchange book knowledge with real-world experience, proves semi-disastrous, but before we get to that particular development, Manners, working from Rose Tremain’s adaptation of Miriam Battye’s shorty story of the same name, craftily explores the slow-motion devolution of a high-school friendship from a seemingly unbreakable bond to one potentially sundered by Flic and Minna’s shifting wants, needs, and desires, as well as school pressures, social heirarchies, and the introduction of random, unforeseen elements (boys, a school teacher).
From the get-go, it’s obvious Flic and Minna, witty, charming, and articulate, retain a prime spot in their school’s pecking order. Together, there’s almost nothing they can do. Superficially above it all, they’re both a social group of two and also retain a prime place among the school’s social groups. Flic and Miina are admired for their intelligence, their willingness to play the grades-focused game, and a ready, seemingly flip, unconscious irreverence to school life. They have a ready-made quip for any occasion, making them the envy of their classmates.
Flic and Minna are also mean lacrosse players and participate in the school’s extracurricular life, specifically an upcoming production of William Shakespeare’s comedy, “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” It’s the latter competitive arena, however, that the first splinters in their relationship begin to appear.
Minna wins the lead role in the play, Oberon. A disappointed, heartbroken Flic doesn’t receive a part aligned with her talents (she’s relegated to "Tree/Mound"). Turning the production co-ed not only limits the roles available but creates tension as Minna begins to spend more and more time with her male co-lead and his friends.
Their so-called “love project” also adds another layer of stress: Treating love like a scientific experiment, they jointly decide to fall in love with the first person they meet. That person turns out to be their 30-something geography teacher, Miss Delavigne (Alice Englert, Beautiful Creatures), a dowdy, introverted instructor short on self-confidence and long on (near) blissful ignorance of the teen girls under her charge or their romantic plans for her.
Adapted by Rose Tremain from Miriam Battye’s short story of the same name, Extra Geography finds universal truths (fracturing teen friendships) in a particular set of circumstances (a posh Brit school for girls) while delivering an often raucous, sometimes poignant, resonant coming-of-age tale. Tremain’s script insightfully captures the intensity of desire typical among teens, the headlong rush of emotions (and hormones) that dictate their behavior (rational and otherwise), and the unbounded, fluidic nature of their personal and sexual identities.
Bolstered by Manners’s colorful, textured approach to the school and its environs, crisply elevated, hyperstylized dialogue, and achingly perceptive performances from its co-leads, Marni Duggan and Galaxie Clear, Extra Geography belongs on the must-see list for filmgoers interested in discovering talented newcomers, a fresh take on a familiar sub-genre, and a worthy, worthwhile exploration of teen psychology and relationships that define them.
Extra Geography premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.