15 Minutes

15 Minutes (2001) is an American crime thriller written and directed by John Herzfeld — watch it online on iFILM. Robert De Niro plays Eddie Flemming, a high-profile NYPD homicide detective who courts the cameras. Edward Burns plays Jordy Warsaw, a fire marshal who does the work without the spotlight. Together they are chasing two Eastern European criminals who have figured out how American television works.

Emil and Oleg, played by Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov, arrive in New York with old debts and a stolen camcorder. They move quickly from settling scores to something colder: they start filming their crimes, having worked out that footage of violence sells, and that a well-documented murder can be packaged into a legal defense. Flemming and Warsaw close in — without knowing they're already on tape.

Herzfeld made a media-circus satire years before social media turned the premise into daily news. The cast also includes Charlize Theron, Kim Cattrall, and Vera Farmiga, and the film's central question — if the camera makes a killer into a celebrity, who is responsible for that — hasn't aged out. Stream 15 Minutes (2001) online on iFILM.