“I think it’s fun to go see a bad movie” says Rafer Guzman. Most people wouldn’t enjoy watching horrible films intentionally, but for Rafer Guzman, it’s the best part of his job.
A well-known film critic for Newsday, Rafer Guzman has had the pleasure (or in some cases the burden) of viewing many films. Although most of us might grow bored of watching numerous movies consecutively, Rafer however, is able to sit through them happily.
After graduating from Columbia, Rafer began career as a rock critic doing reviews of concerts. He was able to get his name out through the work he did for small local papers and eventually applied for a job at Newsday. At Newsday he started as a rock critic, but later went into reviewing movies also taking jobs other critics refused to escape having to listen to terrible music. Unlike bad films, which he has a much greater tolerance for, Rafer said that to him, “music is really personal,” and that he couldn’t bear to endure anymore terrible performances.
Since he is the only movie critic for Newsday, Guzman must watch about 3-5 films a week and write reviews of each one. His favorite genre is action because he finds these films very cinematic and says it “looks good on screen.” This is why he enjoys the work of Bryan Singer and is a big fan of the X-Men and Batman series. He says that these films were the first to combine real-life ideas and events with a fictional world.
Despite his love of film, Rafer does hate some genres like most romantic comedies and kid’s films. However, he doesn’t let this stop him from writing a fair review. When reviewing films that may not necessarily appeal to a great audience, he tries to “sell” the movie to the reader. He believes that a key factor in writing a credible review is not being 100% positive or negative about the film, but providing a mix of the two.
While he was with us, Rafer gave us some predictions on how some upcoming films will do in the box office. The most memorable being Star Wars: Episode VII. He thinks that the film will be a hit. Although he is not a fan of the original series by George Lucas, he went as far saying that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Disney production did better than James Cameron’s Avatar, regarded by many as one of the biggest movies of all time.