Geography Club
The football score goes from 10 to 17 despite no extra point kick.,Brian Bund: I don't really care about geography. I already have an A in Geography, so... I thought about joining this club for a while just to make friends, but... I was scared. I know people laugh at me. I'm not stupid. The thing is... I don't wanna go home after school. I'm scared of it, actually, so I play cello. I play it when I'm nervous. It's what I do at night - homework and cello. When I'm nervous and I don't have my cello, my fingers twitch. Well, I just didn't wanna go home after school; so, I'm not gonna force you to be my friend, though, so... Don't worry about your secret. I'm not gonna tell anybody.,Followed by The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know (2015),Big Confession
written by Stephen Sulikowski
performed by 16 Frames
Courtesy of Hype Music,Like several other reviewers before me, I just happened upon this movie and therefore had few expectations. And, like them, I was pleasantly surprised. As a mature gay man, I think the topic of bullying in schools is an important, yet complicated one: it is easy to sit back from the action and judge, but to experience it -- especially at such a confusing time of life -- isn't quite so black and white. So. ultimately, I thought it was a good film and was happy to have discovered it.

Then I went to IMDb to offer a rating - perhaps a "7" - and learned that the film was based on a series of books written by Brent Hartinger. So, I ran over to Audible.com and purchased the first and, upon completion of that, the remaining three books. Then, my opinion changed a bit.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the acting was actually quite good and that (for a small film) the production quality was higher than one might expect. However, the liberties that the screenplay writers took with the book's rich content were mind-boggling. As a life-long fan of both books and movies, I fully understand that strict translations of page to screen are nearly impossible and often fall flat when they do occur. However, the extent of the changes were so pervasive that it is nearly impossible to recognize some of the characters - in fact, reading the book helped me understand my confusion over the conflicting actions/statements of some of the characters in the film, who it appears were patched together from other characters in the book.

I think what bothers me more than anything is that I fear several of the liberties taken by the screen writers will really threaten any possibility of screen versions of the sequels in the book series. It's a shame, because the journey of these characters is a good and honest one that I think many teens would find compelling.

I awarded 5 points for tackling the topic in a realistic and accessible manner. An extra point for the nice portrayals by the young cast. It's still a good movie, but could easily have been a better one had the writers taken better care and trusted the original author. I encourage anyone interested in this movie or its topic to look for the books (hard copy, e-book, or audio book).,