About Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Two friends with strong opinions watch films separately then discuss them on the show for the first time. Can their friendship survive? Join Mike and Dan as they discuss one film each episode--and in only fifteen minutes, give or take a few. There are no long pauses, pontifications, or politics--just two guys who want to share their enthusiasm for great movies. On Twitter. On Letterboxd. Email: fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com.

NBN Episodes hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics:

May 13, 2024

First Reformed

Paul Schrader

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

In a recent interview, Paul Schrader said he was lucky with Taxi Driver because he “caught the zeitgeist.” He may have done so again with First Refor…

May 6, 2024

Hobson’s Choice

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Hobson’s Choice (1954) is the perfect example of a very specific genre: the capitalist romance. Filled with a Dickensian love of humanity and featuri…

April 29, 2024

We Own the Night

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Is there anything so refreshing for a film fanatic as a film about grownups? The mid-budget We Own the Night (2007) is a tonic in a world of films co…

April 8, 2024

The Ladykillers

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Everyone loves gut-busting belly-laughs in a film. But sometimes, big laughs slow things down. There’s something to be said for films that amuse us …

April 8, 2024

Pan’s Labyrinth

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

In 1965, Bob Dylan teased the squares by stating, “Something is happening but you don’t know what it is.” The same could be said for childhood and Pa…

April 1, 2024

Saboteur

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Saboteur, released in 1942, feels like it was conceived, written, filmed, and edited in the three days between Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaring wa…

March 25, 2024

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

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If we could undergo a procedure that would erase the painful memories from our lives, would we do it? That seems to be the question of Eternal Sunshi…

March 11, 2024

Magic

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Magic is misdirection, and Richard Attenborough and William Goldman do a terrific job of misdirecting the audience in this 1978 thriller. Like The Ki…

March 4, 2024

Baby Face

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Baby Face is the 1933 film that created the archetypal Barbara Stanwyck character and famously laid everything bare before the production code tried t…

February 26, 2024

Conan the Barbarian

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It’s easy for some people to laugh at Conan the Barbarian, John Milius’s 1982 film about Robert E. Howard’s most famous creation: it seems like the ci…

February 19, 2024

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

A genuine crowd-pleaser that couldn’t please enough crowds in 1988, Tucker: The Man and His Dream has finally found an audience. Tim defends 80s Copp…

February 12, 2024

The Hunting Trilogy

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We all know the rules of the Looney Tunes universe: rabbits can outrun bullets, shots to the face don’t kill, and the laws of gravity don’t always app…

February 5, 2024

Limelight

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Being lighthearted and amusing can be a painful business. That’s one of the themes of Limelight, Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 portrait of the artist as an …

January 29, 2024

Anatomy of a Fall

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We all know the rules of courtroom dramas. We welcome the confusion we feel during the case and the sense of release upon hearing the jury’s decision…

January 22, 2024

My Best Fiend

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Werner Herzog is a filmmaker with an intuitive sense for showing the right thing at the right time, whether he is offering the story of a maniacal con…

January 15, 2024

Eyes Wide Shut

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In a past episode in which they discussed the films of Tom Cruise, Mike told Dan, “You’re the smartest person I know who ever made it all the way thro…

January 8, 2024

The Omen

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Can a film do everything wrong yet still find its defenders, who not only acknowledge each of the film’s faults but find these faults endearing? Such…

January 1, 2024

Meet John Doe

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Have you seen that other Capra film in which the protagonist in a moment of crisis, attempts suicide on Christmas Eve? Join Mike and Dan for a conver…

December 25, 2023

The Sting

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There’s nothing like being conned at the movies. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about George Roy Hill’s beautifully-constructed toy, The Sting. Dan …

December 18, 2023

Donnie Darko

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If we had seen Donnie Darko in high school, we would been drawn to the Easter eggs throughout the film and made videos in which we pointed them out wi…

December 4, 2023

Wild Strawberries

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What if you could receive the adulation and respect of strangers but not from your own family-or even yourself? In Wild Strawberries (1957), Ingmar B…

November 27, 2023

I Know Where I’m Going!

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Samuel Johnson once asked, “What enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got?” He must never have seen I Know Where I’m Going (1945…

November 21, 2023

Spirited Away

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We are used to entering cinematic fantasy worlds in which we learn the rules of how the world works and then watch our hero navigate through it: think…

November 13, 2023

Minority Report

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Listen:

Minority Report (2002) is Exhibit A of how screenwriters love the premises of Philip K. Dick’s source materials and then adapt his core thought experi…