Sean Keeley

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Articles

A Voice Crying Out ‘On the Waterfront’

Aug 24, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Nick Ripatrazone |Giancarlo Sopo |Jonah Goldberg |Sean Keeley

Father Pete Barry elevates Elia Kazan’s classic film on its 70th anniversary. Published August 24, 2024 In 1950, a Jesuit priest sat across from a screenwriter at Billy the Oysterman on 20th Street in Manhattan. Father John Corridan agreed to meet Budd Schulberg at the restaurant to talk about what some considered his obsession, but what the priest called a vocation: breaking a crime ring that bilked longshoremen out of millions of dollars a year in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The Calculated Stasis of ‘The Bear’

Jul 13, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Luis Parrales |Samuel Kronen |Sean Keeley |Nick Ripatrazone

No, the show’s third season isn’t aimless. Published July 13, 2024 In early 1904, the Irish novelist James Joyce—at that time a decade away from his first major publication—submitted a short story to the literary magazine Dana. It wasn’t meant to be.
The God-Haunted World of ‘Chinatown’

Jun 22, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Hannah Long |Nick Ripatrazone |Jonah Goldberg |Sean Keeley

Culture A look back at the neo-noir classic on its 50th anniversary. Published June 22, 2024 • Updated October 22, 2024 The English novelist P.D. James once wrote that murder mysteries aren’t about death, but about “the restoration of order,” stealth theodicies sealed by happy endings. We expect an orderly universe. When a mystery breaks the rules, it gets our attention.
The ‘Hit Man’ Who Waxed Poetic

Jun 21, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Guy Denton |Anthony M. Barr |Luke Phillips |Sean Keeley

Culture Richard Linklater’s newest movie unevenly blends screwball comedy with philosophical musings. Published June 22, 2024 In American popular culture, hit men are a ubiquitous force, the focus of countless movies, TV shows, and video games. Given the omnipresence of contract killers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they must abound in reality.
The Most Captivating Character in ‘House of the Dragon’

Jun 1, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Samuel Kronen |Anthony M. Barr |Guy Denton |Sean Keeley

Some of the most significant characters in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy realms—which inspired the HBO sensation Game of Thrones and its more recent prequel House of the Dragon—have some kind of disability, deformity, or disadvantage. They spend much of their lives compensating for it, often in destructive ways. In the process, they exemplify an essential part of compelling storytelling: using suffering as a way to craft convincing motives and scenarios. So it is with Prince Aemond Targaryen.
How ‘3 Body Problem’ Gets Lost in Translation

Apr 13, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Sean Keeley

Here’s a thorny question: When was the last time Chinese pop culture made a splash in the U.S. market? Given how much China dominates our political debate, the answer is strangely elusive. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a surprise box office smash 25 years ago, and Hollywood has shamelessly courted the Chinese market plenty (with all the self-censorship that entails).
‘Dune: Part Two’ and the Art of the Adaptation

Mar 16, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Sean Keeley

Like a sandworm throwing off its rider, Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi classic Dune has long defied filmmakers’ best efforts to master it. The cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky famously never got his version to the screen, though the effort itself spawned a documentary. David Lynch filmed the novel in 1984, but the result was a compromised studio cut widely regarded as a low point in his career.
The Balance of Tragedy and History in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Nov 4, 2023 | thedispatch.com | Sean Keeley

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon arrived in theaters late last month as a bundle of contradictions: a three-and-a-half-hour epic, rolled out from arthouses to IMAX stadiums, financed by one of the streaming companies whose main business modelthreatens the very movie-going experience that Scorsese holds dear. But arguably an even greatertension exists between Scorsese’s singular talents and the needs of this particular story.
How ‘The Sting’ Still Pulls Off Its Big Con

Sep 23, 2023 | thedispatch.com | Sean Keeley

When The Sting hit theaters in late 1973, it had all the makings of a major New Hollywood production. Paul Newman and Robert Redford, both stalwarts of the movement, had reunited four years after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They had joined forces again with director George Roy Hill, who like Newman and Redford had first gained fame as the Old Hollywood studio system was giving way to a more open playing field. Screenwriter David S.