Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Everyone has seen A Christmas Carol, The Bishop's Wife, and It's a Wonderful Life--but Mike wanted to talk about a lesser-known Christmas film that he thinks deserves more viewers: Roy Del Ruth's It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947). Join Mike and Dan as they talk about what makes the film so weird, compelling, and satisfying--and how the film asks its viewers to think about the ways that you can only hurt the ones you love. So open that manhole, climb on down, put on the millionaire's dressing gown, light a cigar, and give this one 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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

Every December, Mike and Dan argue about the most beloved of Christmas films: Frank Capra's 1946 masterpiece, It's a Wonderful Life.  Like all good people, Dan finds the movie charming, affirming, and a welcome reminder of life's many blessings.  Mike, however, walks home from his counting house, muttering about the "leeches" (his word) who inhabit Bedford Falls.  Humbug!  So walk into Nick's, order a flaming rum punch (heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves) and give it a listen!  

Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter @15MinFilm.  You can also contact us at [email protected], and support the show with a buck or two at Venmo @FifteenMinuteFiIm.  All proceeds go right back to the show!

Terrific bumper music by Jackson Frederick Smith.

URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jackson_F_Smith/Jackson_Frederick_Smith/Cantina_Rag

In 1988 Columbia Pictures released The Beast, a film directed by Kevin Reynolds based on a play by William Mastrosimone. It ran for a week. Dan and Mike had never heard of it until one of their listeners emailed them and told them they had to check it out. He called it "one of the best films you've never seen," and he was right. So check out The Beast (free with Amazon Prime) and then join Mike and Dan as they talk about the film's moral ambiguity, commitment to making its audience uneasy, and connections to Reservoir Dogs, Das Boot, and Apocalypse Now.  

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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

This week, the guys take a listener request and talk about the 2010 documentary Senna, director Asif Kapadia's look at three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna. You could fill libraries with what Mike and Dan don't know about Formula One--so they were the perfect people to go into this cold. The film and its subject won them over in minutes and they talk in this episode about the challenge of dramatizing the desire to be a champion, the ways in which the film could have gone wrong, and the relationship between humility and dignity. So get into that McLaren MP4/5 and listen to this as you win the Grand Prix! 

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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

Stephen Sondheim died last week at the age of 91.  In this short episode, Dan talks about stumbling upon D. A. Pennebaker's short documentary on the making of the original cast album of Company.  This look into the recording process illuminates the challenges of recording without a live audience and of realizing every note of Sondheim's music at 5:00 AM after twelve or so hours of recording.  Everybody rise! 

Company: Original Cast Album is streaming on the Criterion Channel.  

Opening clip: Elaine Stritch, "Ladies Who Lunch."

Many films examine the nature of evil, but David Fincher's 2007 Zodiac portrays evil as unknowable, without a motive or even a face. Mike and Dan discuss Fincher's understanding of just what happens when people sit in the dark to watch a film about murder and how he teases his viewers--who know from the start that the case is unsolved--with the promise of filmic resolution.  Zodiac might not be a perfect film or even Fincher's best, but it's certainly interesting and a film that grows upon the viewer. So turn on "The Hurdy-Gurdy Man" and then give this episode 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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

For about a year, Mike has been evasive when asked about Benedict Cumberbatch.  In this short episode, he unburthens himself of his feelings about the man whom some regard as one of our greatest living actors.  Is Cumberbatch overrated?  Is his praise undeserved?  Is Mike wrong?  Don your Dr. Strange cape and your Sherlock hat and give it a listen!  

Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter @15MinFilm.  You can also contact us at [email protected], and support the show with a buck or two at Venmo @FifteenMinuteFiIm.  All proceeds go right back to the show!

Terrific bumper music by Jackson Frederick Smith.

URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jackson_F_Smith/Jackson_Frederick_Smith/Cantina_Rag

What's the difference between pornography and art--and where do the Bond films fall? Mike and Dan tackle No Time to Die (2021), Daniel Craig's farewell to the role. The guys break their usual rule of only discussing films they enjoy because, as Dan says in one of his many rants this week, No Time to Die is bad in a special way. They use Nicole Kidman's pre-show spot for AMC Theatres as a way into a discussion about why No Time to Die betrays the spirit of the franchise. Is No Time to Die the Bond equivalent of The Last Jedi? Is it an unnecessary and unwelcome attempt to redeem the character? And how do Parasite, Sullivan's Travels, and Raging Bull all enter the conversation? Order a vodka martini 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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

During this episode on Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED (2006). Dan quotes a friend of his who once asked, "Why would anyone ever make movies about anything other than criminals?" Good question. Mike and Dan talk about what Mike calls a "high-performance machine" of a film in which everyone is at peak performance. They discuss the film's father figures, how it resembles a Shakespearean tragedy, and how the viewer is--like the characters--taken in by those who have a talent for violence and want to leave their mark on their own corner of Boston. So order up a cranberry juice 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 [email protected]. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

Do we really need a Buzz Lightyear origin story?  Mike and Dan talk about this depressing revelation, why most reboots and origin stories don't work, and why a few of them might.  To the Marketing Reports--and Beyond! 

Please follow or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter @15MinFilm and Facebook at Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics.  You can also contact us at [email protected], and support the show with a buck or two at Venmo @FifteenMinuteFiIm.  All proceeds go right back to the show!

Terrific bumper music by Jackson Frederick Smith.

URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jackson_F_Smith/Jackson_Frederick_Smith/Cantina_Rag