Rafer Guzman

When the Oscar nominees were announced on Tuesday, Takeaway producer, Kristen Meinzer noticed that they were — by her measurements — the least culturally and racially diverse in over a decade. Kristen is here with Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday and co-host for the Takeaway’s Movie Date podcast, to discuss race and the Oscars.

Whenever Kristen and Rafer watch a movie together, they keep their opinions a secret from each other until the podcast. But that's hard when they bring along their friends, as they did with this weekend's big movie, "No Strings Attached," starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The friend Kristen brought is in a real "friends with benefits" situation and Kristen talks about how the movie's story compares with her real life.

We just collectively cringed at Ricky Gervais on the Golden Globes, and we’ll be watching the Academy Awards before we know it, on February 27th. In the meantime, we’re watching movies that probably won’t bring home any statuettes this time next year; but this weekends films may provide us with a little guilty pleasure.Takeaway Movie Date Podcast co-hosts Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer talk about these new releases.

This Sunday, awards season officially kicks off with The 68th Annual Golden Globes. Will "The Social Network" beat "The King's Speech"? Can Natalie Portman trump Michelle Williams? Kristen and Rafer debate who they think will win and should win.

This Sunday, awards season officially kicks off with The 68^th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. eastern time on NBC. Also known as the happiest awards show in Hollywood, the Globes is an event where alcohol is served throughout the night, TV stars and movie stars mingle, and comedies and dramas are given equal recognition. But in addition to the misbehaving, winning, and losing, what else should we be keeping our eyes on at this year’s ceremony?

The new backstage celebrity drama "Country Strong" hits theaters Friday, and the big question on everyone's mind is, can Gwyneth Paltrow actually sing?

This week’s big movie opening is a back-stage country music drama called "Country Strong." It stars Gwyneth Paltrow as hugely popular country singer named Kelly Cantor. Kelly is battling alcoholism, competition from a younger singer, low self esteem, and a fractured relationship with her husband and manager played by Tim McGraw. The big question, of course, is: Does Paltrow give a convincing performance as a country music star? And for that matter, is it ever a good idea for actors to sing in their movies?

Highlights include a discussion about Mel Gibson's new puppet movie, a disagreement over Russell Brand and thoughts on the new "Green Lantern."

2010 is coming to an end and a whole new year of news and culture awaits us. All week long, we've been talking with big thinkers about what they’re anticipating, from new music to world events. Today we take a look at the movies you'll likely be talking about in the year ahead.

This week, Rafer and Kristen talk about two of Christmas weekend’s big openers: “True Grit” and “Little Fockers.” Not surprisingly, they disagree on the merits (and shortcomings) of both films.

Christmas is one of the busiest days of the year for the movie industry. If you're still undecided about which movie to see, resident movie buffs Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer size up "True Grit," "Little Fockers" and "The King's Speech."

There's no better way to escape from uncertain times by whiling away the hours at the movies. Takeaway film correspondent Rafer Guzman tells us about five movies that have, from the perspective of a moviegoer in 1941, the potential to become classics: Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," Humphrey Bogart's breakout film, "The Maltese Falcon," Gary Cooper in a prescient war movie, "Sergeant York," and Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion."

"Tron: Legacy" arrives in theaters today, and The Takeaway takes a trip down memory lane to 1982, when the original "Tron" debuted in theaters. The movie featured some glimpses of the future yet to come — such as hackers and cyberwars — and some that have yet to materialize — lightcycles, and ubiquitous, glowing spandex suits. But looking back 28 years, what (if anything) did it get right about technology? And what does the second film hold in store?

Disney saw fit to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at "Tron: Legacy," despite the world having neither become bathed in black light nor overrun by light-trailing motorcycles since 1982's "Tron" ... and both Rafer and Kristen think the money might have been better spent elsewhere.

"The Fighter" is the latest movie from director David O. Russell and stars Mark Wahlberg as boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his coach, (played by Christian Bale). Rafer and Kristen discover each other's true feelings about the movie (hint, they don't agree.) 

The holiday movie season is officially in full swing. Today, nine movies hit the big screen, and the Takeaway Movie Date podcast co-hosts give us their opinions on three of them: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," "The Fighter," and "The Tourist."

A soon-to-be-released film about marital drama just won a rare victory. “Blue Valentine,” starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, was initially given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. The stated reason? Because the film contains “a scene of explicit sexual content.” Many people familiar with the scene described it as a fairly tame sex scene in which William's character receives oral sex. The studio and film's cast and crew appealed the rating, which was changed yesterday by the MPAA. The film is now rated R.

Rafer and Kristen find agreement on the creepiness of Daron Aronofsky's new thriller with Oscar-buzz, "Black Swan," debate the ending, and decide that a movie can sometimes be good even if it offers more questions than answers.   

Darren Aronofsky's dark ballet film "Black Swan" opens today, and it's already being mentioned as a contender for Oscar season. But the film elicited very different reactions from our movie contributors, Kristen Meinzer and Newsday film critic Rafer Guzman.

Rafer and Kristen go to see the bumps, grinds and half-naked vixens in "Burlesque," but find themselves yawning and surrounded by nearly every cliché from the stripper movie pantheon.