Author

Geoff Watkinson 15 posts 0 comments

Geoff Watkinson has contributed to Guernica, storySouth, Brevity [Blog], The Humanist, The San Diego-Tribune, The Virginian-Pilot, and Switchback, among others. His first nonfiction collection, Have Some Faith in Loneliness & Other Essays, is due out in 2022. He is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Green Briar Review (www.greenbriarreview.com). Read more of his work at geoffwatkinson.wordpress.com/publications, or find him on Twitter: @GeoffWatkinson.

Film

Encounter Film Review | Riz Ahmed is Out of This World in Sci-Fi Thriller

Geoff Watkinson Jan 4, 2022 0

Amazon Studios’ new sci-fi drama, Encounter, directed and co-written by Michael Pearce (Beast), hooks the viewer through eerie silence, mild disorientation and general suspense as plot points unfold through visual cues. In the opening…

Film

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Film Review | The Power of the Cat

Geoff Watkinson Jan 1, 2022 0

Directed by Will Sharpe, Amazon Studios’ 2021 film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain stars Oscar-nominated Benedict Cumberbatch, who also produced the film, as Louis Wain. This eccentric time-piece drama based on a true story opens to a…

Film

14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible Proves There Ain’t No Mountain High Enough for Nirmal Purja

Geoff Watkinson Dec 10, 2021 0

In 2019, Nirmal “Nimsdai” (or Nims) Purja set out to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in seven months, smashing the prior world record of seven years held by Jerzy Kukuczka in 1987. In total, forty climbers have done it over…

Film

In the Same Breath Film Review | A Gripping Dissection of a Worldwide Tragedy

Geoff Watkinson Nov 30, 2021 0

Chinese director Nanfu Wang’s newest documentary, In the Same Breath, follows the unfolding chaos, fear and misinformation of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China and the United States, beginning on New Year’s 2020. Known for One Child…

Film

Val Film Review | An Intimate Self-Portrait of a Complicated Star

Geoff Watkinson Nov 23, 2021 0

Directed by Ting Poo and Leo Scott, the 2021 Amazon Studios documentary Val paints a self-made portrait of Val Kilmer, seen from the perspective of the thousands of hours of homemade film that Kilmer has recorded since childhood. Kilmer,…

Film

Uncompromising Reality | Netflix’s The Photographer of Mauthausen Review

Geoff Watkinson Mar 9, 2019 0

There are countless Holocaust films on Netflix or otherwise, but what makes The Photographer of Mauthausen unique and meaningful is director Mar Targarona’s focus on the factual account of the Spanish in the Austrian concentration camp of…

Film

The Land of Hope and Dreams | New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen, and DNA

Geoff Watkinson Feb 7, 2019 0

I grew up in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, 40 miles northwest of Freehold, where Bruce Springsteen is from. A couple of miles away from my childhood home is the town of Centerville, where a blue sign marks what was the “center point for…

Film

Victors of The Night | Identity and Reflection in Bad Times at the El Royale

Geoff Watkinson Oct 18, 2018 0

As the film title suggests, things get worse for the seven characters with dark histories who seem to randomly collide in 1969 at the Lake Tahoe El Royale Hotel—a decaying former favorite of Vegas’ rat pack. The gimmicky hotel sits half in…

Topical

Facing Genocide: Letting History Repeat Itself in Syria

Geoff Watkinson Apr 18, 2018 0

I was 15-years-old the first time I saw a Holocaust survivor speak; she said that “we must never allow this to happen again.” Soon after, I went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. These were experiences of…

Film

The Relatable Amidst the Absurdity | Forgetting Sarah Marshall at 10

Geoff Watkinson Apr 18, 2018 0

In the February 2014 issue of The Atlantic, Olga Khazan, in her article, “The Dark Psychology of Being a Good Comedian,” explores the idea of successful comedy being “a little bit wrong and a little bit right.” Another way to put it is that…

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