15 Minutes (2001)
by Joe Steiff

So you like to have fun with your new videocam, do ya, sport?

Movies for me fall into a couple of categories. The good ones strive primarily to entertain and have no pretensions of saying something important. The bad ones are filled with pretensions, often as some sort of apology for their baser instincts. Usually the first type of movies are quite fun and enjoyable; the second type are painful to watch and at their worst, infuriating.

Films, on the other hand, are often so rooted in the writer/director's authenticity (to her vision or ideas or experience) that, at their best, they seemingly inadvertently say something meaningful to the rest of us.

I would argue that anyone can make a Movie, but that very few directors can make a Film.

As 15 Minutes began, I quickly revised my original thought that this would be a movie. During the very opening of the film, the New Line logo becomes larger and larger on the screen until it seems to be a video image breaking down into its lines of resolution. These lines then dissolve into the opening image, creating a venetian blind effect. Along with the extreme close-up of Daphne's eye during the first murder scene, this gave me hope that the film would become a statement on various levels of voyeurism, inditing even the audience. I mean, early promos had the tag line "the violence will only end when you stop watching." And even more hopefully, I thought perhaps 15 Minutes would express its content in a way that would stand as well on its stylistic merits. You know, an artistically done motion picture with Truth at its core. Or more succinctly, a Film.

I was overly optimistic.

Remember in high school when someone would show you his "really deep" poems? 15 Minutes is the film equivalent. Though the filmmakers may think that this is a really meaningful exploration of "Issues," it's basically a Hollywood-glossed feeble attempt at social commentary.

Just like that high school poem where the writer can't take the risk of saying something really personal and has only two options - say nothing in as bland a way as possible or say nothing with clever constructions. 15 Minutes goes for cleverness, but its attempts are trite.

What passes for cleverness here includes:

1) The title, 15 Minutes, references Warhol's famous comment about fame, but the title has very little to do with the larger themes within the piece. Yes, it seems that our criminals want to be famous, but in fact, Emil seems primarily motivated to find a way to get away with his murders. Now I'll grant you that Oleg wants to be a filmmaker, which of course at this point in our culture, does equate in some ways to being famous.

2) Eddie is a drunk. But a playful drunk. And who didn't guess whom his girlfriend is? The one character strategy in the film that feels somewhat fresh is the teaming of the police and the fire departments, though nothing's really done with it other than the cliché of "people from similar but different worlds bond." Unless you count the mentor/student relationship, which nearly subverts Jordy's being a competent professional in his own right. Forget any examination of or comment on turf wars or politics.

3) All the television personalities in the film are played "well" by current television personalities. Melina Kanakaredes from Providence, Kelsey Grammer from Frasier and Kim Cattrall from Sex In The City are all members of the electronic press in 15 Minutes. The non-television characters are played by movie stars or at least by faces not particularly associated with television (before you reference that guy from Deep Space Nine, let me just mention his film roles these part few years, point out that he's not currently on television and ask - please don't hate me - just how many people do you think really watched Deep Space Nine). Of course, except for 2 Days In The Valley, an assembly passing for a film, writer/director John Herzfeld's resume is primarily television work. Which may be why 15 Minutes feels like a movie of the week. A bad one.

4) Eddie hunts the killers while they hunt the witness to their first murder. Wow.

5) Eddie practices his marriage proposal in the mirror. Can Robert De Niro or his directors (whoever is responsible for this kind of self-reflexive bullshit, because it is bullshit if it has no purpose within the story) please get past Taxi Driver? De Niro can be an amazing actor, but you wouldn't know it from this film. And this scene pretty much destroys any credibility he had in this role.

6) Hollywood films are often criticized for using a soundtrack of pop songs to underscore various scenes' emotions to redundant effect. In this film, talk shows fulfill that obligation, the most unforgivable example being Roseanne's guests blaring out from the TV about "forgiveness" while Emil contemplates his murder. Oh, wait, I forgot about the cover of Bowie's Fame in the soundtrack. Nevermind.

Of course, tabloid television is part of the point, because the killers learn about American culture and develop their strategy for "getting away with their crimes" based on what they see on TV. As the Fire Chief reminds us, uh, I mean, Jordy (Edward Burns): it's all about image.

7) After seeming to sidestep exploiting the "girlfriend in danger" cliché, the film ultimately uses it. Just as its small digression into vigilantism is subverted and fulfilled (how many bullets does it really take to kill someone?).

8) Despite an implied relevance to the current rash of reality shows, 15 Minutes avoids addressing the issue. What's important here is the "evil of talk shows," which makes this film about 5 to 10 years too late. I'm sorry, but Temptation Island (reality TV) makes Jerry Springer (talk shows) look like a novice.

9) Let's not even talk about Oleg introducing himself as Frank Capra. Or the final death scene.

Feigned cleverness is the least of this film's problems; story information is tossed off right and left with no real reflection. For example, Emil comments that Americans do not take responsibility for their actions; his lawyer comments that women are writing fan mail to Emil in prison. One line of dialogue = issue covered.

This last point about our culture's fascination and glorification of violence and criminals was more effectively underscored by the audience at the preview screening. Four women who sat in front of me laughed and applauded Oleg and Emil's running escape along a busy street, and more disturbingly, cheered the murder and death of the "famous person" Emil kills to gain notoriety. It's only fair to point out that they also cheered the final killings in the film, so it would seem that they're equal opportunity violence-lovers. Which may be even more disturbing: no ability to discern values.

My guess is that this script read great, a scathing satire of some of our worst cultural proclivities. In a time when Hollywood has been under attack for its filmic violence, here's a script that would seem to say that yes, indeed, media has an impact on people's actions. Bad, bad Hollywood. As we watch two killers videotaping their exploits, it's hard not to see the potential for a thought-provoking film that would avoid cliches and raise troubling questions. So what went wrong?

It would be too easy to say that the director (who is credited with writing the script) wants to have his cake and eat it too. I honestly don't think he's that on the ball. All he's really done is assemble a collection of cliches that he thinks are clever. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

In the final shot (no pun intended), Jordy walks towards a large statue of an American Eagle and then disappears behind it. Deep. No, it is. Really, really deep. Hey, that high school poetry doesn't look so bad in hindsight. And that's the real crime of this Movie.