Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics – Details, episodes & analysis

If L. A. Confidential (1997) were two degrees campier, it would seem like Dick Tracy–but Curtis Hanson made sure to capture the spirit of James Ellroy’s novel while making its labyrinth plot understandable to viewers. Join us for a conversation about how the film examines the need for heroes yet seems to only offer them in a way to which the movies have made us accustomed. Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but how much sunlight do we really want illuminating the institutions that hold society together? Do we want to live in Chinatown or on the set of Badge of Honor? If you haven’t read James Ellroy’s novel, you can find it here, as well as Steven Powell’s new biography of James Ellroy, Love Me Fierce in Danger. You can also listen to Dan’s interview with Steven Powell here on the New Books Network, as well as a conversation between Dan and Steven about L. A. Confidential on the page and screen. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you’d like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan’s new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) are collectively known as “The Man with No Name” trilogy and are often thought of as one long movie about the hero’s adventures, much like we think of the original three installments of Indiana Jones. Quentin Tarantino has called the third film the most well-directed film ever made, but Mike contends that For a Few Dollars More is superior to the other two. Join us for a conversation about this most dreamlike of Westerns that operates like a buddy-cop movie and reminds us the question posed by classicists, “Could Achilles beat Odysseus in a fight?” In other words, who would be more afraid of angering: Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef? If you’re interested in learning more about Leone’s work, you might want to read Alireza Vahdani’s The Hero and the Grave: The Theme of Death in the Films of John Ford, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you’d like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan’s new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A dramatized thought experiment like best episodes of Star Trek, Forbidden Planet (1956) is a wonderful reminder of how people in the past envisioned the future. Part prophecy—looking forward—and part analysis of the timeless human condition, the film wraps heavy ideas about the cost of knowledge and the ways we interact with our own creations into melodrama. Yes, it’s a reimagining of The Tempest, but it’s also Faust, Frankenstein, and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Fantasia. Join us for a conversation about the limits of technology and the ways in which anything we create bears our own failings. If you’re interested in further reading, Dr. Morbius has many literary antecedents, from Prospero in The Tempest, to Dr. Faustus, Dr. Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you’d like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Halloween, join Mike and Dan for a conversation about Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula, the often-imitated adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel and the template for dozens of films. How the film can be viewed as a portrayal of addiction similar to The Man with the Golden Arm, how Van Helsing and Dracula stand as enemies, and how Dracula-inspired films mark the history of movies all come into play--as well as what Samuel Johnson said about ghosts and what Ernest Hemingway said about what happens to tough guys at night. So gather the wolfsbane, find a rosary, 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We expect lust, greed, and all kinds of deadly sins in our movies--but how do we react to a portrait of goodness? To what degree does a moment of sin undo the millions of others in a person's life? And why aren't people talking about this movie more than they are--which is basically not at all? Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about Bernie (2011), Richard Linklater's second film with Jack Black and one that defines description, genre, or expectations.  In Cold Blood, Anatomy of a Murder, and The Brothers Karamazov all enter the scene. So cue up The Music Man, arrange that basket of soaps, set your bird clock, 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike and Dan tackle their third Werner Herzog movie of the season--and their second Nosferatu.  Join them as they talk about what makes Herzog's 1979 remake of what he called the greatest German film of all time and what Mike and Dan praise as the best of all the Dracula films. Mike calls Herzog "the Mozart of stilted time," Dan compares this film to part of Gulliver's Travels, and the two of them keep coming up with examples of where Herzog upsets the viewer's expectations in wonderful ways. So set your table among the rats 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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--but so do Rosemary's Baby and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  So open that secret door, touch the underwear made by the nuns in the Convent of the Sisters of St. Claire, 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 startup and what Dan compares the film to what Melville called "the truest book ever written." (You'll have to listen to learn that book's title.) So kick the Emperor out of his latrine 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 episode also has Dan's vote for Mike's best phrase so far in the 150+ episodes they've recorded. Does Logan's death fit the world fo the film--or is it a 9 on the Borimir Scale? Zodiac, No Country for Old Men also come into play. So pull out your claws, take the shot of adrenaline, 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, the swinging doors that Dan's dad installed in their basement, and the poem "To Lucasta, On Going to the Wars" all enter the conversation. The guys also explain why there will never be a Shane 2: The Return.  So uproot that stump, grab your soda pop 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 and review the show on Apple podcasts and contact us at FifteenMinuteFilm@gmail.com. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices