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:

July 22, 2024

The Graduate

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles.” So begins The Graduate (1967), which everyone loves but which many of us …

July 15, 2024

Auto Focus

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

A great movie that is very difficult movie to recommend because of its subject matter, Paul Schrader’s Auto Focus (2002), the story of TV-star Bob Cra…

July 8, 2024

Manhunter

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Anthony Hopkins has defined the popular conception of Hannibal Lector and, by extension, the erudite serial killer. But before The Silence of the Lam…

July 1, 2024

Forbidden Planet

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

A dramatized thought experiment like best episodes of Star Trek, Forbidden Planet (1956) is a wonderful reminder of how people in the past envisioned …

June 24, 2024

After Hours

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

“Kafkaesque” is the word usually used to describe After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s 1985 comedy—a fair point, since there’s a scene in the film that dram…

June 17, 2024

Bringing Out the Dead

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

What is the proper—or most effective—response to a barrage of horror and pain? The closest that screenwriter Paul Schrader ever came to a comedy (alb…

June 10, 2024

Broadcast News

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

An Academy darling that has faded into the background, Broadcast News (1987) still holds up as Network’s little brother. They don’t make ’em like thi…

June 3, 2024

American Movie

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

If you’ve seen Hearts of Darkness, you can better appreciate what Coppola endured while making Apocalypse Now; if you’ve seen River of Dreams, you can…

May 27, 2024

Goodnight Mommy

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Goodnight Mommy (2014) is a perfect “office movie”: one difficult to recommend to others and better when watched alone. It’s strong stuff. Young boys…

May 20, 2024

Modern Romance

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

When looking for love, we don’t attract what we want--we attract what we are. That’s one of the many ideas dramatized in Modern Romance (1991), our t…

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

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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 22, 2024

Cat People

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

“I envy normal women—they’re free,” laments Irina Dubrovna Reed, in Jacques Tourner’s 1942 film, one as noir as Out of the Past which he would direct …

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 8, 2024

The Ladykillers

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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 1, 2024

Saboteur

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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 18, 2024

Defending Your Life

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

We are supposed to get smarter as we get older. Do we? If the meaning of your life had to be found in nine representative days, which days would you …

March 11, 2024

Magic

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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

Hosted by Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

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…