Rubin Safaya

Mr. Safaya is the Executive Editor of Cinemalogue and a voting member of the DFW Film Critics Association. He is also a listed critic at Rotten Tomatoes, accredited by the Toronto International Film Festival, and has been quoted by The Wrap, The Manila Times, and CBC.

Mary Poppins Returns

19 December 2018 Rubin Safaya

Fifty-four years after Julie Andrews first appeared on screen as the titular nanny, Emily Blunt steps into her Oxfords to return to the Banks’ household just as things are falling apart.  Now grown, Michael (Ben Whishaw) with children of his own, finds himself in financial distress…

Creed II

21 November 2018 Rubin Safaya

CREED II has the benefit of hindsight, learning from the mistakes of its predecessors in the ROCKY franchise which, for a time, cartwheeled down a path to self-parody.  The sequel rights itself just as Michael B. Jordan’s performance as Killmonger in Ryan Coogler’s BLACK PANTHER opens up new possibilities for the young actor.

Suspiria (2018)

27 October 2018 Rubin Safaya

Luca Guadagnino’s SUSPIRIA is neither remake nor reboot.  Rather, it’s a re-interpretation of the source—Thomas de Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis.  In Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, often mischaracterized as Giallo, Nicolodi’s script rooted itself in the xenophobic superstitions of her grandmother.

Venom

5 October 2018 Rubin Safaya

It’s a foregone conclusion that a character drawn as ludicrously proportioned as the pin-headed Venom inspires a film adaptation that abandons all semblance of drama and veers a hard left into slapstick.