For years my shaving mirror has tried to convince me that I look just like Paul Newman: baby blues, wavy hair (with just a sprinkling of salt amid the pepper), sharp, assertive chin and that drive-the-ladies-wild roguish grin, with just a touch of worldly wisdom revealed in the perfectly etched line
Richard A. Blake
Richard A. Blake, S.J., served as managing editor and executive editor of America and director of the Catholic Book Club, as well as America's regular film reviewer for many decades. He is the author of Afterimage: The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakers, among other books.
Allusions of Grandeur: Sweet and Lowdown
When an art form starts to reflect upon itself, does the borrowing indicate maturity or senescence? I don’t know. Film artists have copied one another since the very earliest comics in the silents realized that audiences loved chase scenes and so tried to outdo their rivals with ever more fran
All About Mamacita: All About My Mother
On the eve of his 16th birthday, Esteban (Eloy Azorin) settles in on the living room sofa in front of the television set to watch the movie "All About Eve" (J. Mankiewicz, 1950) with his mother, Manuela (Cecilia Roth). He complains that the title has been rendered in Spanish as "Eve U
Dubious Talents: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Good news for Matt Damon fans: They will hate Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley. My theory rests on the junior high school girls sitting behind me, who squirmed and chatted from prelude to coda. I harbored dark hopes that the popcorn they replenished every half hour would lodge under their retai
Playing God, Bring Out the Dead: Bringing Out the Dead
In the beginning, Scorsese said "Let there be light," but he preferred the darkness. He created the heavens and the earth but, like Milton, found hell far more interesting. And so it came to pass that in one brilliant film after another over a 30-year artistic career, Martin Scorsese has s
The Election of Father Kolvenbach: From October 8, 1983
In These Pages: From October 8, 1983
Barry Levinson’s ‘Diner’: From May 8, 1982
In These Pages: From May 8, 1982
