15 Minutes begins with two immigrants from Eastern Europe who just arrived in the USA. They come to find an old accomplice owning them money after an old heist went wrong.
When they can’t get their part, they brutally kill him and his wife, filming the murders with a camera.
Since then, they will unleash a whirlwind of violence in the hope of becoming rich and famous. To achieve this, they will make a sick documentary with their murder video.
A young firefighter is not fooled by their crime scene, cleverly constructed as a domestic incident.
He convinces the detective in charge is wrong about the fire incident’s details, thus investigating together.
They soon discover more victims left behind by the two immigrants during their blood journey among the city streets.
When a witness survived the series of murders, the youngest tries to defend her in every way.
Also, since the detective is a celebrity who often appears on TV, the two killers make a plan.
They want to kill the cop and put it on video, exploiting his notoriety and later become rich and famous.
15 Minutes is a thriller about the brutality and indifference of the mass media. A false and ruthless world, rewarding criminals by covering them with money to have the exclusive on their stories.
Concurrently, they ridicule and cause trouble to the firefighter, despite risking his life several times to stop the two psychopaths.
The two pairs of 15 Minutes protagonists and antagonists are well matched.
The two criminals, albeit evil, have an almost childlike naivety with the faces of the two actors Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov.
For the good guys, the usually amazing Robert De Niro flanks the young and honest Edward Burns.
The two women of the story are also essential. Indeed, Melina Kanakaredes and Vera Farmiga, sweetening a very raw and destructive story with their femininity.
15 Minutes is an exciting parable of the search for money and success at any cost, written and directed by the excellent John Herzfeld.
The title of the movie is a quote from Andy Warhol, who claimed:
In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.
Considering that he came before social networks and reality television, we can say that he was a true visionary and precursor of his times.
In this 15 Minutes, the two criminals exploit an already existing system, where serial killers are loved by the crowds as if they were movie stars.
That’s what makes this kind of story one of my favorites.
These movies are great entertainment products in their cinematic genre, able to make people think and think about our world.
