Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Is Rebecca (1940) more Selznick than Hitchcock? How does it work like a rehearsal for Vertigo?  And how is the house a perfect metaphor for Laurence Olivier's Maxim DeWinter? Join Mike and Dan as they talk about Hitchcock's first American film and one that--while lush and "Hollywood"--has his fingerprints all over it.  Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, and North By Northwest come into the conversation--...

Yes, we know the full title is Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but we want to keep consistent with our episode titles for this season. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about Werner Herzog's 1972 portrait of the conquistador as a young man.  Conan the Barbarian, Goodfellas, Richard III, Deliverance, Southern Comfort, and There Will Be Blood all come into play.  Herzog dramatizes what Mike likens to a star...

What's it like to be revered as a legend but feel you're unworthy of the acclaim? Mike and Dan discuss James Mangold's Logan (2017), a movie they enjoy for its ideas as much as it's fights--even more so. How the film looks at aging, anger, self-loathing, and a man's trying to be someone he's not all come into play, as well as the many ways that the film complements last week's film, Shane. This ep...

Everybody knows and loves George Stevens's Shane (1953) so much that its fights and characters have become something almost liturgical. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about how what we think of as a star vehicle for Alan Ladd is actually a terrific ensemble movie and how even the film's color scheme has affected our imaginations of the West.  Pale Rider, The Departed, The Bishop's Wife, Unforgiven...

On the hundredth anniversary of F. W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922), Mike and Dan talk about the film's staying power and the thrill of watching dozens of cinematic conventions being invented before your eyes. The characters are like people watching horror movies, trying to remain logical while feeling uneasy or disturbed.  Alien, Jaws, Rear Window, Niagra, The Witch and even COVID-19 all enter the co...

A film that's both a joy and struggle to watch, Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (1982) dramatizes the trials and triumph of a man bringing what he knows is aesthetic bliss and artistic excellence to the heart of darkness. But is he insane for thinking so? How much does he resemble Kurtz, Ahab, or Quixote? And how does watching Fitzcarraldo's attempt to bring the opera to the jungle remind us of tryin...

Season 8 begins with a fanatic favorite and listener request: Rocky (1976). Mike praises the film's "unexpected subtlety" and Dan talks about how the first installment dwarfs all of its sequels--and why Rocky needs to lose in order to win.  Marty, Raging Bull, and Creed all come into the conversation. So gulp those eggs, lace those Chuck Taylors, and give it a listen!   Please subscribe to the sho...

Season 8 will begin on Monday, August 29, 2022.  In the meantime, check out this unbelievable promo with one of the world's most-recognizable actors!   Terrific bumper music:  Bluebird by E's Jammy Jams Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109 Please subscribe to the show wherever...

If you were making a film about the afterlife, would the next world be in monochrome or technicolor? In their season 7 finale, Mike and Dan answer this question as they talk about Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), which Mike contends has "all the things that make a movie great" and which Dan describes as a "beautiful hallucination-like all the best films." ...

Mike and Dan talk about one of the most faithful adaptations of any novel: the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men (2007). Join them for a conversation about how the film poses questions about maintaining one's dignity and morality in a world one no longer recognizes, the way in which the film allows the viewer to think along with the characters, and whether or not the ending is as much of a dow...

How much unease can a film pack into 68 minutes? A great amount, as Mike and Dan discuss in this week's episode on Detour (1945), Edgar G. Ulmer's noir masterpiece and certainly one of the best examples of the genre. The guys talk about the ways in which the film dramatizes the whims of whatever malevolent force controls the universe and Ann Savage's unpredictable, electrifying performance. I Am a...

"You notice a lot of things if you look." So says Maggie Cheung in Kar-Wei Wong's fascinating In the Mood for Love (2000). Mike and Dan notice many things about this terrific film, such as how it presents adultery in a way that surprises audiences used to seeing it as a plot device or a reward for a character's misery--as in The Bridges of Madison County. How the film suggests adultery as a terrib...

"Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor's children starving?" Charlton Heston finds out when he lands on Planet of the Apes, the 1968 classic that sparked sequels, a TV show, toys, Halloween costumes, and CGI reboots, but still stands above all of them. Mike and Dan talk about their favorite momen...

In this short episode, Mike and Dan talk about their favorite places to see movies.  Dan raves about the Princeton Garden Theatre in Princeton, NJ; Mike praises the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX.  Both offer terrific experiences for watching first-run and classic films and both are heavenly places for film fanatics.  So get to Princeton or Austin or anywhere there's an Alamo Drafthouse and see wh...

Ride into the danger zone with Mike and Dan as they discuss the first--and perhaps only--blockbuster popcorn movie of the season: Top Gun: Maverick. Dan defends his enjoyment of Tom Cruise's movies, Mike talks about a question the film asks that it can't answer, and both examine the ways in which Maverick has the feel of an 80s movie and the classic structure of the "Make a plan / execute the plan...

Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly (2006) is a better film than Blade Runner, the adaptation often seen as the gold standard of Philip K. Dick adaptations. Join Dan and Mike for a conversation about the experience of watching this terrific and trippy interrogation of the surveillance state, the noise that permeates our lives, and the ways in which our identities are scanned and sold.  Other topi...

No one was as jazzed up to see The Northman as Mike and Dan.  Both are great admirers of Robert Eggers's The Witch and The Lighthouse, each of which has been discussed in previous episodes.  But the disaster of The Northman is more than a disappointment; it's indicative of a trend in contemporary films in which the audience is held almost in contempt.  This episode doesn't follow the usual three-a...

"What kind of man are you?" So asks one of the people who interact with Jef Costello, existential assassin in Jean Pierre-Melville's Le Samurai (1967). Mike and Dan try to answer this question by comparing Jef to Richard Stark's serial thief Parker (and subject of John Boorman's Point Blank) and a few other figures. Melville's masterpiece uses what Dan calls a "symphony of silence" to generate rea...

“Pray for the best but prepare for the worst” is what Hugh Jackman’s character advises his son in Prisoners, Dennis Denis Villeneuve’s 2013 thriller. And “the worst” is what we get: this is another intense movie, like Dear Zachary or Zodiac, that you can’t indiscriminately recommend to anybody around the water cooler. Mike and Dan talk about the many terrific performances here–among them Jake Gyll...

The general atmosphere gets very Macbethish as Mike and Dan talk round out their Season of Mankiewicz with All About Eve (1950), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's masterpiece. The guys talk about how the film offers theatricality as a way of life and means of getting what one wants and how it both plays into and mocks our desire to hobnob with famous folks. The greatness of George Sanders, Chris Farley's int...

When's the last time you saw a film with an all-star cast, big-name director, notable screenwriter, period sets, shootouts, explosions, snappy dialogue--and poignant moments? Mike and Dan talk about how Brian DePalma's The Untouchables (1987) combines all of these elements into a satisfying experience. Dan compares it to Shakespearean history plays and the guys then bring in Lincoln, Seven Samurai...

Dale Launer has written screenplays for films that everyone has seen: Ruthless People (1985), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and, notably, My Cousin Vinny (1992). Join Mike and Dan as they talk to Dale about screenwriting, his inspiration for Vinny Gambini (hint: it's a rock star who died in 2013), and how the torrid tale of the making and unmaking of Blind Date (1987) reflects the perils of scree...

After coming off of Foreign Correspondent, here's a mini-episode on another oft-overlooked yet perfect Hitchcock film: The Lady Vanishes (1938).  Mike talks about his recent rewatching of this early thriller, what Dan calls "Hitchcock's Agatha Christie," and how it has the magic formula for satisfying an audience.  So stir your Mexican tea and give it a listen!   Terrific bumper music:  Bluebird b...

Mike and Dan share their similar reactions to Hitchcock's 1940 espionage thriller: Why aren't more people talking about this movie?  A Hitchcock film that sometimes feels as if it were directed by Howard Hawks, Foreign Correspondent is a terrific film that Mike and Dan urge their listeners to see. Adjusting for scale, it's Hitchcock's most expensive film, his Mission Impossible, but also one that...

Inspired by his reading Competing with Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, A Dual Portrait and his earlier interview with its author, Nick Davis, Dan has been binging on Joe Mankiewicz films.  In this short episode, Mike names the films and Dan talks about what makes them worth seeing.  No other podcast delivers so much in so short a time!   Terrific bumper music:  Bluebird by E's Jammy Jams Creati...