Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

"Don't you ever get mad at nobody?  Don't you ever just wanna whomp and stomp on someone, bite off their ear, just to do it--just to get it out of your system?" So asks Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) in Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), the story of two Shore Patrol sailors who escort an essentially innocent man to an eight-year stint in jail. But who's really in jail--and can someone escape? Mike an...

Stunned by their getting to 100 episodes, Mike and Dan celebrate by responding to some questions from listeners near and far.  Thank you to everyone who has supported the show! Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on Twitter @15MinFilm.   You can also contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com, and support the show with a buck or two at Venmo @FifteenMinuteFiIm....

Wait--you don't know Ricky Jay, the world's greatest sleight-of-hand artist and fascinating author, raconteur, and entertainer?  And you've never seen his unbelievably great Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants?  Watch it at the link below--then throw your cards at the melon and give this a listen! You can see Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants here: https://youtu.be/FtgUSUHnzLI Please follow or subscribe...

How is falling for a con game like buying a movie ticket? What happens when we want to be conned? And what role does confidence--in the game and elsewhere--play in our daily lives? Mike and Dan talk about David Mamet's first film House of Games (1987). As always, spoiler alert: if you haven't seen it, watch it first. It's only 90 minutes and we guarantee you'll have a good time watching the film a...

Mike and Dan talk about one of their favorites for the first time: The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers' 1998 masterpiece. They begin with a seemingly obvious question--What makes this film so funny and rewatchable?--before moving into the subject of how much the Coens love movies and share that love with their viewers. Mike talks about The Dude as a soft-boiled detective and Dan picks up the threa...

Have we lived good lives? How could we tell? Mike and Dan talk about Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and how the film explores the thousand moral decisions that war forces people to make. The guys discuss the justly-famous opening segment, what the viewers want as they move through the film, and the powerful bookends that open and close one of Spielberg's best. To all those who serve...

After Se7en the guys move onto the next number and ask, "How does what we know about people make us change the way we perceive them?" Mike and Dan talk about how this occurs in Paul Thomas Anderson's first film, Hard Eight (1996). What makes a P. T. Anderson picture unique, how he manipulates the viewer in a way similar to how Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) manipulates John (John C. Reilly), and how t...

How does a person respond to evil? Can any response make a difference? Why bother? Mike and Dan consider these questions as they talk about David Fincher's 1995 thriller Se7en.  Topics include the many things the film does so well, from small moments that reveal character (like SOmerset's refusing a cup of coffee) to bigger issues that bring to mind the work of Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy,...

Playwright, screenwriter, essayist, novelist, and all-around wonderful crank David Mamet appeared on his friend Jeffrey Tambor's incredible podcast, Acting Schmacting, and gave advice to young actors about how to break into the game.  As great admirers of Mamet's work, Dan and Mike listened and recorded their reactions.  You can listen to the Acting Schmacting episode here: https://www.podbean.com...

After Dan tells the story of his seeing Alien at the age of 11, he and Mike talk about all the things Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece does well: its treatment of the monster, the restraint of its effects, and its use of sci-fi and horror tropes. They also talk about the film's original title and why the sequels fall flat. Other films mentioned: Jaws, The Lighthouse, 2001, Star Wars: A New Hope (wh...

Brian DePalma's 1990 adaptation of Tom Wolfe's bestseller The Bonfire of the Vanities was supposed to be a Great American Film--but things didn't work out that way. Julie Salamon's 1991 book The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco details the struggles to make the film and how the war between art and commerce was waged in the offices of studio executives and on the set. It's one of th...

"Hitchcock's Hamlet" is how Mike describes Rear Window (1954), his all-time favorite film. He and Dan talk about Hitchcock and his stand-in, Jimmy Stewart, as keen observers of humanity. They also talk about what movies do to us, how the film speaks to our current screen-filled moment, and what would happen if a movie could talk back (although they don't mention The Purple Rose of Cairo). So grab...

In November, 1970, a dead whale washed ashore the Oregon coast.  After some deliberation, officials decided to blow up the carcass.  KATU news ran a now-famous story about the event which has been examined, parodied, and inspired a few songs.  Mike and Dan talk about the news coverage as "a perfect movie."  So be sure you're far away from the blast radius and give it a listen! Audio courtesy of KA...

Are snakes necessary? Mike and Dan answer this question as they talk about Preston Struges's 1941 masterpiece The Lady Eve. Topics include the perfect stooge, the blend of literate and physical comedy, and how one of the most convoluted premises in film serves as a dead-on reflection of how millions of people enter their marriages. There's also a conversation about sex in movies, with allusions to...

Yes, always.  Everybody loves the famous outtakes of Orson Welles hawking Paul Masson wine and Findlay frozen peas.  Mike and Dan talk about why these are still hilarious.   Aaaaaaaaah--the French!   Orson Welles and the Frozen Peas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol5RpDEzLzY Paul Masson outtakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvxwf1jxdaM&t=12s Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever yo...

Mike and Dan talk with Dave Itzkoff, author of Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies.  What a movie! What a book! Dave talks about his research, what he learned about Paddy Chayefsky, and how Network predicts our contemporary media landscape. If you're a fan of Network, or of movies at all, this is a must-hear. Many thanks to Dave Itzkoff for comin...

What happened to The Simpsons?  This is a question that many have asked and that Mike and Dan, who revere the show, ask in this short episode.  Dan compares the later seasons to the ending of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Mike compares the early, great seasons to The Recognitions.  So grab a Duff and give it a listen! Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and...

"A noir with no guns" is how Mike describes Otto Preminger's 1955 study of addiction and confinement. He and Dan talk about Sinatra, Jerry Garcia, and how a key scene of the film reminds them of one in Shakespeare's Othello. So put down those drumsticks and give it a listen!   Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on YouTube, Twitter and Letterboxd. Please rate...

People are divided about all kinds of issues these days--and one divisive issue is Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen (2009).  Is it as bad as the haters claim?  Or is it what Mike calls a "silly exercise?"  The guys talk about what makes a comic adaptation worth watching.  Give it a listen before the Doomsday Clock strikes 12! Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast...

Season 5 begins with Dan and Mike talking about Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder's 1944 masterpiece about seduction, murder, and conscience. What a movie! So light that match with your thumb, get a new ankle bracelet, and meet us on the train's observation deck for a conversation about one of our favorites. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on YouTube, Twitter...

After being told by his friends that he was a "grump" for not being excited about the new cut of Justice League, Mike responded that the best DC film was Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the 2000 animated film (released in its uncut form two years later).  He and Dan spend this One Shot talking about why this animated film surpasses many live-action ones without requiring $70 million dollars fo...

When was the last time you had a truly cathartic film experience? Many people would respond, "When I saw Dear Zachary," Kurt Kuenne's 2008 documentary about the murder of his friend Andrew Bagby. Dan and Mike talk about why--besides its subject--the film affects viewers so viscerally and profoundly. How does "the buffer of fiction" shield us as we watch dramatizations, rather than documentaries? G...

Mike just finished watching all seven seasons of The Shield, Shawn Ryan's brutal police series that ran from 2002-2008.  He joins Dan in this short episode to share his reaction, comparing the show to King Lear.  Spoilers abound!   Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter @15MinFilm.   You can also contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com, and support t...

Orson Welles called Leo McCary's Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) "the saddest film ever made." Who are Mike and Dan to second-guess the great man? The guys talk about how the film defies categorization, uses the grammar of comedy to treat some unfunny business, and silences any viewer fortunate enough to spend a day with Bark and Lucy. So order two old fashioneds for two old-fashioned people and give...

"If we ever turn these into a book," Mike remarks in this episode, "it'll be called Trial by Viewer." That's one of the subjects the guys discuss when they look at Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959), one of the greatest courtroom-dramas of all time because it breaks some fundamental rules about the genre--and, in doing so, puts the viewer in the same uncomfortable place as the jury. So su...