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The situations might be implausible. But the villains' strategy? Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times is disturbed by just how plausible such heinous acts might be. "What kind of person would do something like that? The kind of person, I imagine, who appears on The Jerry Springer Show, a program I study for signposts on our society's descent into barbarism. When you say these people have no shame, you have to realize that 'shame' is a concept and perhaps even a word with which they are not familiar. They will eagerly degrade themselves for 15 minutes of fame." He admits the film is not as artful as Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers, but adds, "it's a real movie, rough edges and all, and not another link from the sausage factory."

It should be noted that this very week Natural Born Killers was excused of responsibility for acts of copycat violence. And thank goodness for that. Not only is it ridiculous to claim that Oliver Stone's satire of violence was intended to incite violence, but to hold Stone legally responsible for the related murders would have been disastrous to artists across the country. Imagine if writers, painters, photographers, or directors had to fear lawsuits for whatever irresponsible behavior their work inspired in immature and reckless viewers. I found Natural Born Killers to be prophetic, witty, sometimes quite powerful … everything Fifteen Minutes pretends to be. (Some called the performances too exaggerated and ludicrous, but I swear I've encountered people in my own neighborhood that are frighteningly similar to the Bonnie and Clyde maniacs played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.) While the movie is only appropriate for mature, responsible audiences, it is well-acted, brilliantly stylized, and intricately layered to lampoon the assault of the modern media on our senses. Under the sound and fury lies a story about children whose family and society gave them no love, attention, or respect. It is a perfect example of what Flannery O'Connor was talking about when she talked about using art as a sledgehammer that wakes up a numb and apathetic people.

For those more interested in laughter than violence, new releases offered three fairly unimpressive comedies: Get Over It, Company Man, and Blow Dry.

Get Over It, the tale of a high school boy (Ben Foster) desperate to win back his girlfriend (Melissa Sagemiller), was not screened for critics—usually a sign that the studio doesn't want the awful truth about a movie to ruin its opening weekend. Bob Smithouser of Focus on the Family caught up with the movie anyway and found it lacking, sure enough. He writes, "there's not an original idea to be found in this calculated adolescent fantasy that vacillates between romantic innocence and naughty winks at perversion." He faults the movie's "tired marriage of formulas, from its skeletal similarity to a Shakespearean play to its Ally McBeal-ish dream sequences." He also condemns the film's "matter-of-fact treatment of premarital sex and its lone portrayal of parents as immodest, party-hungry swingers." The U.S. Catholic Conference was dissatisfied as well. "Director Tommy O'Haver spins a comic romance of little distinction save for a few sprightly song and dance numbers." Michael Elliot at Movie Parables says that the "heavy sexual content and crude humor" are "an unwelcome and unneeded addition to this story which had so much more to offer." There were, however, some facets of the movie that he liked. "Surprisingly, Get Over It has enough pleasant verve and high-spirited energy that we might find the film lingering in our memories a bit longer than the other recent examples of its genre."

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March (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45