Two teenage girls at boarding school grapple with growing up and the changing nature of their friendship in Molly Manners’ Extra Geography.

Childhood friendships leave a deep mark. A first best friend can feel all consuming, a bond so intense it leaves little room to imagine anything outside it. When that closeness mixes with school, new experiences and the first glimpses of a wider world, it creates a confusing period where certainty feels absolute even though it rests on fragile ground. That false sense of safety makes the changes young people can’t yet anticipate feel abrupt, disorienting and almost tragic.

Extra Geography centres on the intense, ride‑or‑die friendship between Minna (Galaxie Clear) and Flic (Marnie Duggan), two boarding‑school girls who roam the halls with total confidence, convinced they can excel at anything they choose to pursue. The only thing they feel they lack is lived experience, so they decide to acquire it by “falling in love” with their geography teacher, Miss Delavigne (Alice Englert). There’s no real emotion behind this plan; it’s an experiment designed to prove they can master love as easily as they master everything else. They set themselves tasks such as catching her attention, performing interest and even trying to dream about her, all without considering her feelings. To them, Miss Delavigne isn’t a person. She’s a subject, a tool for their ongoing pursuit of perfection.

Their plan pushes them into emotional territory neither of them is ready for, and the tight synchronisation they once relied on begins to slip. Flic seems to move ahead by forming a genuine connection with Miss Delavigne, while Minna doesn’t receive the same attention. The gap between them widens as Minna lands a major role in the school play while Flic is given something far smaller, and Minna’s growing popularity with boys pulls more of her focus as the film progresses.

The film gradually shifts its perspective away from the girls functioning as a single unit, always side by side, opening their notebooks in unison and seeming to think as one, and begins to follow Flic more closely as she grows isolated. Minna pays her less attention and gains more opportunities, leaving Flic without the support she once relied on. The strain makes her spiral and act out, and she starts to recognise how suffocating the friendship has become now that she has nobody else to turn to. This pulls her toward Miss Delavigne, who offers guidance and a quiet sense of comfort during her loneliest moments.

Minna and Flic’s growing rift is expressed visually. Early in the film they are always shown side by side, but as they begin to drift apart the framing shifts: they sit opposite each other at lunch, and later they appear separately with empty space in the frame marking where the other once was. This visual language reflects Flic’s increasing loneliness, while Minna is more often surrounded by others, whether in the school play or spending time with boys who draw her attention. Seeing these changes through Flic’s perspective makes the shift in their dynamic more tragic, as she is the one left without other connections to fill the gap. The film never fully explores whether Minna’s growing circle has the depth she shared with Flic, though it strongly suggests that it doesn’t.

The cast carries all of this with real conviction. Marnie Duggan captures Flic’s growing sadness and frustration as she feels increasingly pushed aside. She plays Flic as abrasive and difficult to get along with, someone who builds near‑impenetrable barriers to protect herself, yet her behaviour softens around Miss Delavigne, hinting at a young woman searching for guidance during a period of overwhelming change. Galaxie Clear gives Minna a mix of arrogance and wide‑eyed curiosity, playing her as someone who knows there are gaps in her experience and assumes she can fill them with ease. She handles Minna’s gradual shift in confidence as she discovers her ability to influence others with real skill. Together, the two leads are entirely believable as best friends who can’t imagine a world beyond each other, which makes the eventual fracture in their relationship all the more tragic.

Alice Englert also gives a quietly affecting performance as Miss Delavigne. She brings a sense of loneliness and awkward confusion to a woman who suddenly finds herself the focus of two intense young women, grounding the film’s emotional shifts with a steady, understated presence.

The character work is strong and often deeply relatable, but the film could have gone further with the growing estrangement between the two leads. There are moments of confrontation and attempts to slip back into their old rhythm without realising how much has changed, yet the shifting dynamic could have been explored in greater depth. Focusing on Flic’s perspective works, but it leaves Minna underserved in the second half, turning her into a reflection of Flic’s journey rather than showing how she feels about the changes in their friendship. A slightly wider scope might have given the film an even more textured emotional landscape.

Extra Geography will resonate with anyone who has drifted apart from a best friend and will stir the emotions tied to connections that fade with age. The film doesn’t soften the ideas it explores or offer the comfort of a neat resolution. It makes clear that growing apart happens, that people are rarely prepared for it, and that there is often nothing they could have done to prevent it.

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Verdict

An uncompromising movie that deftly charts the pressures that unsettle and fracture a young friendship.

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