51 of the Best Movies That Are 90 Minutes or Less
It’s not your imagination: From Dune to Batman to Killers of the Flower Moon to Oppenheimer, the biggest blockbuster films are indeed getting longer . Perhaps it’s due to directorial excess, or the need for everything to be filled with enough backstory to propel a franchise, or simply because it’s harder to get people into theaters, so studios want to make it seem like every big movie is an event. ( And yes, some movies do have to be that long —but did No Time to Die really have to be that long?)
And sure, long films are sometimes great, but length isn’t always (or even often) a determining factor of quality. Heck, some of the greatest films in history—spanning decades and a wide range of genres—tell their stories very effectively in 90 minutes or less. Below, in order of length, are the 35 best and shortest films of all time, all of which are worth (not much of) your time.
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Duration: 45 minutes
The General is usually mentioned when people talk about Buster Keaton’s best films, but in my opinion, Sherlock Jr. is every bit as inventive and far more charming. Keaton plays the Projectionist, a poor guy working in a movie theater who dreams of marrying a rich girl (Katherine McGuire) whom he can’t afford to impress. Falling asleep on the job, his dreams turn into actual dreams as he imagines himself entering the world of the films he designs and experiencing a visually and technically inventive adventure as Sherlock Jr. a girl with her own detective skills.
Where to watch: Tubi, digital rental.
Detour (1945)
Duration: 68 minutes
It’s not exactly a rule, but film noir seems to thrive at a runtime of around 90 minutes—perhaps the approximate limit of our ability to watch a character descend into inescapable darkness. In much less time , Detour follows Al Roberts, a small-time pianist who makes some money and decides to hitchhike across the country in search of his best girl, who has run off to Hollywood to become a star; Unsurprisingly, he encounters a bump in the road when the person who picks him up turns up dead and Al sort of accidentally assumes his identity. The photo was taken carelessly and cheaply, but despite all this, it somehow became a classic. It’s currently in the public domain and free on YouTube, although since it was recently restored, you’d be better off watching it on one of the major streamers.
Where to watch: Prime Video , The Criterion Channel, Tubi, MGM+, Crackle
Frankenstein (1931)
Duration: 71 minutes
One of the earliest and almost the best (second only to its sequel) of Universal’s horror classics, Frankenstein packs so many iconic images into 71 minutes that it remains relevant for nearly a century.
Where to watch: digital rental
The Hitchhiker (1953)
Duration: 71 minutes
A couple of friends on a fishing trip pick up a passenger who turns out to be a serial killer responsible for several previous robberies and murders. This tense premise is realized beautifully under the watchful eye of director Ida Lupino, an actress and one of the very few women to direct American films in the 50s.
Where to watch: Prime Video , Tubi
Installation (1949)
Duration: 72 minutes
The wildly eclectic Robert Wise ( West Side Story , The Day the Earth Stood Still , The Sound of Music , Star Trek: The Motion Picture, etc.) directed Montage with all the grit and labor required of a film in its own right. sort of (this is a sports drama in the noir style), stripping all the shine from its prestigious films. The result is one of the best boxing films of all time, as well as one of the best noirs.
Where to watch: digital rental
Little Maman (2021)
Duration: 72 minutes
Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma took a sharp left turn for her next film, a tender and poignant coming-of-age story. A young girl mourning the death of her beloved grandmother helps her parents clean up the family home. One day, while playing in the forest, she meets another little girl exactly her age. I can’t tell you more than that, except that the slow revelation of who this girl is will have a devastating impact on anyone who has ever been or had a parent.
Where to watch: Hulu , digital rental.
The Last Safety (1923)
Duration: 73 minutes
Buster Keaton was bolder and Charlie Chaplin more edgy, but Harold Lloyd was more focused on laughs and was no less brilliant than his better-remembered contemporaries. Safety last! it’s his most famous film (thanks to the memorable clock scene) and also almost his best film, and has a lot more plot and jokes than just the clock sequence.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, Tubi, digital rental.
Cat People (1942)
Duration: 73 minutes
Producer Val Lewton traded freedom for prestige early in his career, taking over RKO’s B-movie division and making shorter films on the cheap. Very few restrictions were placed on it, other than the caveat that films needed sinister titles to attract attention – so here goes: Cat People , ostensibly about a new bride who turns into a panther, but is actually a beautifully filmed psychosexual drama about sublimated desire.
Where to watch: digital rental
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Duration: 76 minutes
Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas took a while to catch on with audiences (and we can probably thank Hot Topic for turning it into a cultural phenomenon), but those of us who saw it in theaters in 1993 year, we immediately realized that this was an instant classic. . A sweet and spooky seasonal gem about what happens when the King of Halloween gets bored with the holiday and decides he can make Christmas better (or at least throw in a few severed heads). It’s probably a short 76 minutes due to the complexity of stop-motion animation, but it’s also the perfect length for an adaptation of Tim Burton’s original illustrated poem.
Where to watch: Disney+ , digital rental.
Nothing Sacred (1937)
Duration: 77 minutes
Comedy, like horror, often thrives in shorter runtimes, never having the opportunity to wear out its welcome. Carole Lombard is superb in this witty oddball, playing a poor-town Vermont hillbilly brought to New York by a cynical reporter (Fredric March) desperate for content. She appears to be dying of radium poisoning, and the story of her harrowing last night on earth will make headlines. Except she doesn’t die – it’s all a scam and a satire of both the manipulative tabloid press and our thirst for tragic stories that seems at least as relevant almost 75 years later.
Where to watch: Prime Video , MGM+.
Primer (2004)
Duration: 77 minutes
Writer-director Shane Carruth spent next to nothing (estimated at $7,000) to create this incredibly complex sci-fi story about two Bill Gates-style computer geniuses who hack a functional time machine in their garage and proceed to use it to ruin the lives of each other. to a friend. in profound ways. To say more would be to diminish the impact of this chilly lo-fi classic.
Where to watch: digital rental
Record (2007)
Duration: 78 minutes
In this gory and brilliant entry into the found footage subgenre, a reporter (Manuela Velasco) is among a group of firefighters responding to an emergency call at an apartment building in Barcelona. But this is not a fire, but an outbreak of an infectious disease that turns people into zombies. It’s a lean and mean, effectively nerve-wracking thrill ride that spawned some pretty good sequels, as well as a surprisingly decent American remake ( Quarantine ), but none of them can top the original.
Where to watch: digital rental
Batman: Mask of the Phantom (1993)
Duration: 78 minutes
Superhero movies are rarely less than 6 hours long (at least some of them think so), but perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the best movies is much shorter… and it’s an animated film. A theatrical spin-off of the revered ’90s Batman animated series, Phantasm sees an old flame return to Bruce Wayne’s life even as a new vigilante arrives in Gotham. This is a top-notch Batman, cartoon or not.
Where to watch: digital rental
Paris is Burning (1991)
Duration: 78 minutes
With clear love and sometimes brutal honesty, this landmark queer documentary explores the heyday of so-called “ballroom culture” in New York City, when queer and trans performers, marginalized in their daily lives, dressed up and cast aside the prejudices of society and the grim reality of the crisis. AIDS to get on the podium and sing along for your life. It’s a celebration of finding family, as well as a profile of a community and cultural movement that would find wider recognition decades later in shows like Pose and RuPaul’s Drag Race .
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel
Rope (1948)
Duration: 80 minutes
Hitchcock’s great experiment almost had to be short, given the restrictions he placed on the film: everything had to look as if it had been shot in one continuous take (actually a series of ten-minute takes, if only because it was the longest film that cameras of that time could hold). The arrogant lovers, played by John Dall and Farley Granger, throw an elaborate dinner party while hiding the body of a former classmate almost in plain sight – see if you can spot the culprit.
Where to watch: digital rental
Before Sunset ( 2004)
Duration: 80 minutes
Sequels are often longer than the original, so it’s a credit to director Richard Linklater that he was able to do better with the follow-up to the giddily romantic 1995 two-hander Before Sunrise , even though it has a running time that’s 20 minutes shorter. It helps that the lively film ends beautifully, unforgettably and abruptly.
Where to watch: digital rental
Run Lola Run (1998)
Duration: 80 minutes
This German import is over two decades old, and yet I’m still hesitant to spoil the twist of the thematic engine that powers it, so I’ll just say that Franke Potente never stops moving throughout its hour and 20 minute running time; it’s a thriller that excites like a caffeinated late-night video game binge, and if it had been a minute longer, it (and the premise) would have collapsed from exhaustion.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Lights Out (2016)
Duration: 81 minutes
Horror films don’t have to be long! Tension tends to dissipate if pushed too far, as director David F. Sandberg (in his feature debut) and company learned in this high-concept thriller; it was based on Sandberg’s own three-minute short film. Here, Teresa Palmer plays Rebecca, who thought her childhood nightmares were behind her. What little child doesn’t have nightmares about creatures in the dark? Except she’s grown up and discovered this…surprise! …it wasn’t all in her head.
Where to watch: digital rental
Perfect Blue (1997)
Duration: 81 minutes
Perfect Blue (directed by Satoshi Kon) blurs dark fantasies and darker realities in a way that will remind you of the films of Darren Aronofsky – although, of course, this film came out before Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan , which echo him. (Perfect Blue also inspired Madonna, so make of that what you will). Its story follows a young Japanese singer who is forced to give up her career to take a job in television, a move with horrifying consequences in the tradition of stories about the high price of fame.
Where to watch: Shudder, AMC+, digital rental.
Toy Story (1995)
Duration: 81 minutes
Speaking of keeping animation short and sweet, Pixar used to know how to do that. These days, many of their films are approaching (or exceeding) two hours in length—understandably, they’ve earned our patience—but it’s no coincidence that the shortest of the Toy Story films is still arguably the best, the perfect execution of an absolutely flawless concept. . (Yes, it’s likely just that kind of short because it’s also the first film to be created entirely with CGI, but sometimes limitations aren’t a weakness.)
Where to watch: Disney+ , digital rental.
Rye Lane (2022)
Duration: 82 minutes
Think Trainspotting- era Danny Boyle directing an Elizabethtown -style rom-com that’s actually good, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what to expect from director Raine Allen-Miller’s charming debut film. Two South Londoners, both in their 20s, meet shortly after each has suffered a bad break-up; they keep helping each other get over their exes and I’m sure you know where this is going, but you’ll be smiling the whole way.
Where to watch: Hulu
Hell’s House LLC (2015)
Duration: 83 minutes
Found footage horror films are often short, partly because horror can work very well in a compressed time frame, but also because they are often made on a fairly small budget. No matter! When it works, it works. Hell House LLC has created a franchise based on its clever premise and ambition: a Halloween-themed haunted attraction has a tricky opening night when the location chosen to host the event turns out to have its own dark history. Luckily for us, there is a film crew nearby to document the chaos that ensues.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Shudder, Tubi, AMC+, digital rental.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Duration: 83 minutes
We’re approaching 2029, when this landmark anime promises that we humans will gain access to “shells,” cybernetic bodies in which we can store our consciousness. When the mysterious “Puppet Master” learns to control these projectiles, Major Motoko Kusanagi is tasked with tracking down the culprit. Stunningly animated and impressively designed, this cyberpunk classic has inspired countless action-loving filmmakers (like the Wachowskis).
Where to watch: Prime Video , Tubi
Heroic Trio (1993)
Duration: 83 minutes
Tung (Anita Mui) is a seemingly meek housewife who fights crime on the side with a sword; Chat (Maggie Cheung) is a brave bounty hunter with a shotgun; and Ching (Michelle Yeoh) has a suit that allows her to turn invisible while working for the Evil Master to kidnap babies… at least until she’s reunited with her sister Tung and childhood friend Chat. Together, these three team up to become the lead trio in this super-fun blend of superhero comic book style, over-the-top action and Hong Kong-style humor.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
Duration: 84 minutes
Spike Lee’s first feature film launched his career with the story of a woman (Tracy Camille Jones) enjoying the kind of sexual freedom usually afforded to men. It’s smart, funny and surprisingly sex-positive, if a little problematic by modern standards.
Where to watch: Netflix
Persona (1966)
Duration: 84 minutes
In Ingmar Bergman’s avant-garde thriller (maybe?), two of world cinema’s greatest actresses, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, play a nurse and her patient. In a claustrophobic atmosphere, the overly personal nurse and the barely speaking patient become so close that they seem almost the same person. Exploring identity, sexuality and gender, the film made Bergman a genuine international sensation, at least among those who watch Ingmar Bergman’s films.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Duration: 85 minutes
Filmmaker and naturalist Craig Foster spent a year building a relationship with the wild common octopus—a creature we discover can be startlingly intelligent in many recognizable ways and downright alien in many others. However, Foster and the octopus become something of good friends, hanging out and playing with each other as Foster gains deeper access to her underwater world. The dangers of this world and the naturally short lifespan of this species offer truly moving lessons about the profound fragility of life, and the joy and value of connecting with nature.
Where to watch: Netflix
Cloverfield (2008)
Duration: 85 minutes
Matt Reeves ( War for the Planet of the Apes , Batman ) directs this unique giant monster movie that gives found-footage filmmaking the opportunity to stretch its budget significantly. A farewell party attended by several young New Yorkers turns wilder when the city is attacked by a skyscraper-sized kaiju.
Where to watch: Paramount+ , digital rental.
High Noon (1952)
Duration: 85 minutes
Although it seems subtle today, High Noon ‘s anti-blacklist and anti-witch-hunt policies were so clear to audiences at the time that John Wayne called it “the most un-American thing I ever saw in my whole life.” ” Any movie that makes John Wayne so angry is fine with me. He responded by making the much longer Rio Bravo and… well, that movie is also a classic, but it’s 2 hours and 21 minutes long. High Noon does a lot more with less and lasts a lot better.
Where to watch: Prime Video , Paramount+ , MGM+.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
Duration: 85 minutes
Dramas based on true events tend to be drawn out, but it’s the straightforwardness of Ryan Coogler’s first feature film, based on the real-life police killing of a young unarmed black man in Oakland , that makes it so beautiful and so heartbreaking. .
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Evil Dead (1981)
Duration: 85 minutes
Some films are short simply because it’s cheaper. This may or may not be the case with Sam Raimi’s beloved cult horror-comedy, but The Evil Dead doesn’t suffer one bit from its truncated runtime. In fact, every film in the upcoming franchise is roughly 90 minutes long, give or take, and this film set the perfect length for gritty practical horror.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Duration: 85 minutes
A New Zealand horror mockumentary film that launched an unlikely franchise. This movie packs a lot of jokes into its 85 minutes.
Where to watch: digital rental
My Neighbor Totoro (1986)
Duration: 86 minutes
Because animation is a complex and sometimes expensive task, films in this medium are usually shorter than live-action features. Surprisingly, director Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved Studio Ghibli films tend to run around two hours (in fact, he can shoot as long as he wants), but the exception is the classic My Neighbor Totoro, about two girls and their adventures with a tree. sprites in rural Japan. This is an almost perfect film from the first frame to the last.
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Polyester (1981)
Duration: 86 minutes
Even at 86 minutes, John Waters manages to pack a lot of raunchy laughs into this, his best, if not his most outrageous film. It doesn’t matter if you realize that the story of beleaguered suburban housewife Francine Fishpaw (played superbly by the iconic Divine) who watches her seemingly perfect family fall prey to sex and debauchery is a perfect parody of Douglas Sirk. melodramas; it’s still great, subversively fun throughout (and even better in Odorama ).
Where to watch: digital rental
Child’s Play (1988)
Duration: 87 minutes
With this high-concept, sometimes funny slasher film, a slasher empire was born. Screenwriter Don Mancini, who continues to helm the franchise, co-wrote this film about a serial killer whose soul inhabits a foul-mouthed doll (Brad Dourif). He continues to hunt a single mother and her son. While the franchise’s true comedic ( and weird ) potential won’t be fully realized until later, all the seeds have already been planted here.
Where to watch: Tubi, MGM+ , digital rental.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Duration: 88 minutes
Stanley Kubrick’s early, important anti-war film does the (almost) impossible by creating a moving and compelling war narrative that doesn’t glorify war, even unintentionally. The action takes place during the First World War. Kirk Douglas plays Colonel Dax, the commander of a group of French soldiers. When soldiers refuse to carry out a completely senseless attack that will undoubtedly result in their deaths, they are court-martialed for cowardice, largely to protect the egos of those higher up in the chain of command. It’s a tense and brutal 88 minutes, and Kubrick doesn’t need more time to make his point crystal clear.
Where to watch: Prime Video , Tubi
The Lion King (1994)
Duration: 88 minutes
One of the highest-grossing animated films in history, The Lion King cemented Disney’s resurgence in the early 1990s with its Shakespearean tale of Simba, a prince who just can’t wait to become king. Until he finds out the price of his desire. Hakuna Matata! Don’t watch the (too long) remake.
Where to watch: Disney+ , digital rental.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
Duration: 88 minutes
Stoner buddy comedy has reached its zenith with this funny, silly, yet endearing romp from “one crazy night.” John Cho and Kal Penn are great, but Neil Patrick Harris (playing himself) steals the show.
Where to watch: digital rental
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Duration: 88 minutes
Claudette Colbert is looking for a rich husband, although she is already married to an inventor played by Joel McCrea. It doesn’t matter – they love each other, but they could use the money that a second husband could bring. It could have been a dark satire, but in Preston Sturges’s direction it is as generous as it is silly.
Where to watch: digital rental
Rashomon (1950)
Duration: 88 minutes
You could tell me that Akira Kurosawa’s much-imitated musings on the nature of justice and the frailty of memory are only 88 minutes long, but I’m pretty sure I remember them differently. Consider this proof that it doesn’t have to take an all-nighter to sit through an all-time classic.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, Tubi, digital rental.
Videodrome (1983)
Duration: 88 minutes
Welcome new flesh! David Cronenberg’s legendarily weird horror classic contains all the slick (literally) body horror tropes that are the director’s signature, but it’s also a sly commentary on the subversive power of mass media in the analogue age, following an amoral TV producer (James Woods, rarely better ) as he searches for the secret of Videodrome, a pirated broadcast of graphically violent and sexual imagery that may actually be more than just fiction. Debbie Harry co-stars and looks damn hot (obviously).
Where to watch: digital rental
Airplane! (1980)
Duration: 88 minutes
There are so many memorable moments and lines, and they happen at an incredibly fast pace. It may not be the greatest farce of all time, but Shirley has one of the highest hit-to-miss ratios—even some of the dumbest jokes are still good for a laugh, 41 years later.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Crank (2006)
Duration: 88 minutes
There’s such an effective high concept here that it’s 100% possible and highly recommended to look past the film’s inherent silliness and just admire it for exactly that. Jason Statham plays Chev Chelios, a man poisoned in such a way that he must keep his adrenaline levels at a constant high or he will die. The way it continues to gain momentum is the most interesting thing. It’s loud and over the top, and it would have completely fallen apart if it had lasted even a few minutes longer.
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Attack the Block (2011)
Duration: 88 minutes
The film, which starred John Boyega alongside future Doctor Who Jodie Whitaker, is unique in that it follows a British street gang living on a council estate who are also the only hope against brilliantly engineered alien invaders . That’s a lot of craziness for over 90 minutes.
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Stay with Me (1986)
Duration: 89 minutes
“Stay with me” doesn’t seem insufficient, and in this case it’s not an insult. The unlikely Stephen King adaptation doesn’t waste a second of its time, with director Rob Reiner crafting one indelible, childhood nostalgia-soaked scene after another as he tells the story of a group of friends who venture into the woods in search of rumors that there is a corpse worth gawking at.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Eraserhead (1977)
Duration: 89 minutes
As is the case with much of David Lynch’s work, the plot here is rather pointless – something like a one-night stand that leads to the birth of a baby lizard. No matter. We’re here for the nightmarish atmosphere and vague existential dread. Jack Nance, Lynch’s longtime collaborator, stars in a film filled with truly unforgettable performances.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Bo Labor (1999)
Duration: 90 minutes
Passions run high in Claire Denis’s magnificent, hypnotic poem about soldiers of the French Foreign Legion heading to Djibouti. There, a triangle of obsession and hatred arises between chef-adjutant Galoupe (Denis Lavant), newcomer Giles Saintin (Grégoire Colin) and the commandant, whom they both admire. Come for the shirtless French guys, stay for the gorgeous cinematography and the atmosphere of repressed ennui.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Commando (1985)
Duration: 90 minutes
Look, sometimes you just want a clean, unfiltered shot of a 1980s-style action movie, and in that regard, you can’t do better than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic. It’s got it all: explosions, a fictional Latin American country, a dictator played by Dan Hedaya (!), inspiring one-liners and endless bloody deaths, including a memorable dismemberment with a buzz saw.
Where to watch: digital rental
The Thin Man (1934)
Duration: 90 minutes
The on-screen couple that set the pattern for some of the best relationships (though not won) in film history began here. I’ve seen this film several times and couldn’t tell you anything about the central mystery – only because the real draw is the drunken chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell.
Where to watch: digital rental
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Duration: 90 minutes
Time has given class to this French classic, which upon its release was praised and ridiculed in equal measure for its crude effects (which are incredibly boring by today’s standards). If you ignore the horror elements, the film is more like a dark fairy tale, brutal, but strangely poetic and beautiful. Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Marcel Shell in Shoes (2022)
Duration: 90 minutes
Ninety minutes may seem like a long time to adapt a series of five-minute YouTube shorts, but I would have loved to have spent a lot more time with Marcel, who truly is a shell of a shoe and just the sweetest little sentient person. the shell of a shellfish you’ve ever seen. This faux documentary follows Marcel as he searches for his missing family, and I’m not kidding when I say Isabella Rossellini gives an award-winning performance as his grandmother. Who is also a shell.
Where to watch: Paramount+ , Netflix, digital rental.