What to Watch When You Only Have 90 Minutes
A ninety minute film is not a compromise. It is a discipline, and some of the best films ever made are short because nothing in them is spare. If you have one free evening and no appetite for a three hour epic, pick from the list below and start it before nine. Blood Simple, Before Sunrise and Run Lola Run are the easiest wins. All of them are complete, none of them are slight, and every one leaves you with something to say to another person afterwards.
Blood Simple (1984), 96 minutes
The Coen brothers' first film, a Texas noir where everyone knows slightly less than they think. Lean, mean and funnier than its reputation.
Before Sunrise (1995), 101 minutes
Two strangers walk around Vienna and talk. Richard Linklater makes that the most romantic thing imaginable, and it is over before you want it to be, which is the point of the whole trilogy.
Run Lola Run (1998), 81 minutes
Three runs at the same twenty minutes, told at a sprint. It should be a gimmick and it is instead a small marvel about chance.
Bicycle Thieves (1948), 89 minutes
A man's bicycle is stolen and he needs it for work. That is the whole plot and it will break you. The shortest route into Italian neorealism and one of the greatest films ever made.
Toy Story (1995), 81 minutes
Put aside that it is animated. It is a perfectly built film about jealousy and obsolescence, and it moves faster than almost anything else on this list.
Repulsion (1965), 105 minutes
Roman Polanski's first English language film. Catherine Deneuve alone in an apartment while the walls stop cooperating, and a better horror picture than the more famous one he made next.
Duel (1971), 90 minutes
Spielberg's first film, made for television. A car, a truck, no explanation. The purest suspense machine he ever built and still the leanest.
12 Angry Men (1957), 96 minutes
One room, twelve men, one afternoon. It is a masterclass in structure and the best possible demonstration that a film needs almost nothing to be gripping.
- Short does not mean slight. Bicycle Thieves and 12 Angry Men are among the best films ever made and both come in under a hundred minutes.
- For the easiest weeknight wins, pick Blood Simple, Run Lola Run or Before Sunrise.
- Start it before nine and watch it in one sitting. That is the whole advantage of a short film.
- A short film still gives you plenty to talk about the next day.
The whole idea
Watch one movie this week. Talk about it Friday.
We pick one film. You watch it alone, on your own time. Friday at 7:30pm PT you get ten minutes on Zoom with one other person who watched it too. No club, no homework, no small talk.
See this week's pick $5Common questions
- What are the best movies under 90 minutes?
- Run Lola Run (81), Toy Story (81) and Bicycle Thieves (89) are the strongest true sub-90 options. Blood Simple and 12 Angry Men sit just above at 96.
- Are short movies worse than long ones?
- No. Length correlates with ambition of scope, not quality. Several of the most admired films ever made run under a hundred minutes because everything unnecessary was cut.
- What should I watch on a weeknight?
- Something under a hundred minutes that you start before nine, in one sitting, with your phone elsewhere. Blood Simple or Before Sunrise are ideal first picks.