90 minutes or less.
Brevity is beauty.
"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough,” wrote the late Roger Ebert. I find that sage critical advice to be words worth living by … but, look, we’re all busy. Sometimes, we just need a movie to be short. A film that manages to get the job done quickly and efficiently is a marvel in its own right … and oftentimes just what the doctor ordered.
In celebration of these important contributions to any balanced cinematic diet, I’ve rounded up ten great films that you can knock out in under an hour and a half. The timely tie-in is for Petite Maman, a sweet coming-of-age story from the Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma that comes in at a cool 77-minute runtime. It is not in conjunction with SNL’s “Short Ass Movies” sketch.
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Without further ado, 10 titles, under 90 minutes, described in under 90 words. (NB: Before you speculate on any snubs, Lady Bird is a perfect 93 minutes — and still streaming on Netflix.)
About Endlessness, 76 minutes, Hulu
Swedish master Roy Andersson’s swan song About Endlessness is an existential delight. This series of comic tableaus are full of droll wit and delectable psychological insight about what it means to be alive. Spoiler alert: it means nothing, and yet it means everything. The film in some ways feels like a collection of sketches, and yet it never feels like a playlist from a YouTube channel. It’s a cohesive work, narratively and thematically.
City Lights, 86 minutes, HBO Max
Let Charlie Chaplin take you on a full emotional ride in City Lights. From comedy to romance to drama to that iconic closing moment of suspended possibility, this outing with his Little Tramp bowls over with sincerity and sweetness. Chaplin produced this silent film outing defiantly as the movie world transitioned to the talkies, and his focus on what is gained by losing a sense on screen produced one of his sharpest films.
Eraserhead, 89 minutes, HBO Max
Had to include one movie from the “Short Ass Movies” sketch! If you’re curious about the surrealistic cinema of David Lynch but feel intimidated by his more bonkers formalist works like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, a good starting point would be Eraserhead. His first feature film is a short, evocative nightmare refracting one man’s anxieties over becoming a father. It’s simple enough to understand without too much mental effort, yet the loaded imagery still gives you plenty to chew on after.
The House, 88 minutes, HBO Max
What if I told you The House is not just a limp Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler comedy made in the dying breath of the silver screen studio comedy … and actually a time capsule-worthy portrait of upper-middle-class economic anxiety? This is a deeply funny film using laughs as a release valve to see the naked desperation of middle-aged Americans trying to get any kind of financial leg up – even if it means operating an illicit, home-operated casino. A cult hit in the making here, come join the party early.
James White, 87 minutes, Peacock (free with ads)
You don’t forget the performances that make your hair stand on end, so I’ll forever be banging the drum on the towering achievement that is Christopher Abbott’s work in James White. As a flailing and floundering twentysomething, he’s all raw nerves as he tries to overcome his personal demons whilst caring for his ailing mother. The camerawork and acting are so immersive that you can’t help but be swept up in the intensity of the film’s emotion. It’s harrowing and heartbreaking, yes, but also restorative and resplendent.
Meet the Patels, 87 minutes, HBO Max/Peacock (free with ads)
When My Big Fat Greek Wedding became a cultural sensation – gulp – twenty years ago, people were quick to point out how the movie resonates because it could be about any culture. Meet the Patels makes good on that promise, showing how the universal derives from the specific as it documents the real-life journey of Ravi Patel as he indulges his parents’ desire to explore arranged marriage. Enter with an open mind, and you’ll come out with a new curiosity and understanding of the practice … plus a full heart.
Paris Is Burning, 77 minutes, Criterion Channel
Know where the term “shade” came from before it entered the mainstream lexicon? Learn your cultural history! Paris is Burning provides a vivid look into the roots of contemporary drag and ball culture from late-‘80s New York. This landmark documentary takes you behind the scenes to see how the city’s queer community both survived and thrived in the shadow of AIDS and reactionary politics. The film neither ignores nor exploits their trauma but instead uses it as a background to this vibrant display of resilient power.
Persona, 83 minutes, HBO Max
If you’re ever looking for canonical films that don’t require three hours of your day to slog through, return to the well of Ingmar Bergman. The giant of Swedish cinema understood you could say it all through a piercing image or cut, and boy did he in Persona. This oft-copied masterpiece is the template for much of contemporary psychodrama as a soft-spoken actress and her loquacious nurse retreat from the world … and also into each other. 83 minutes gives you plenty to think about regarding duality and identity!
Yes God Yes, 77 minutes, Netflix
If your coming-of-age story includes AIM chatrooms or evangelical-adjacent communities, then you will feel seen by early-aughts comedy Yes God Yes. But even if you didn’t, you’ll spot the timeless markers of discovering one’s own sense of self as Natalia Dyer’s Alice learns to separate herself from the censorious (and oft-hypocritical) sexual teachings of her religious upbringing. This story of overcoming shame by not suppressing feelings walks the fine and delicate line of criticizing institutional faith without shaming personal spirituality. For a chronicle of lust, it sure warms the heart.
You Were Never Really Here, 89 minutes, Amazon Prime
Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here is what you get if someone made an action movie but trimmed all the fat. This lean, mean fighting machine essentially restages Taxi Driver in the present day with Joaquin Phoenix as a tortured hitman hell-bent on rescuing a young girl from captivity. Ramsay’s film thrives in the ellipses and the unexpected cuts where she uncovers how she can derive spectacle from sparseness. It’s a chilling – and yet totally complete – emotional and narrative experience seeing the world through the protagonist’s fractured perspective.
WHAT I WATCHED
In my occasional forays into the vast options on television, I finished The Dropout this week. Give Amanda Seyfried the Emmy for this specific scene alone:
WHAT I HEARD
Michelle Yeoh’s press tour for Everything Everywhere All At Once including a stop on Las Culturistas … I do think so, honey!
WHAT I READ
In lieu of the incredibly exciting news of a new Nancy Meyers movie coming to Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter got a ton of big names in the rom-com space on record to ask why it seems the genre now only exists on streaming.
We come to this place for magic … this place? Vulture’s definitive ranking of Nicole Kidman wigs.
WHAT I WROTE
I’ll admit I wasn’t all that crazy about the multi-character millennial romance Paris, 13th District (available in select theaters and on VOD) … but one simply does not turn down the offer to speak to a Palme d’Or winner. For Slant Magazine, I spoke with co-writer/director Jacques Audiard about his latest film. It wound up being a great conversation, better than the one we previously had in a brief window before he had to bounce for a TIFF Q&A of The Sisters Brothers. Audiard now joins Marielle Heller in my two-timers club of interviewees, for what it’s worth.
TTYL!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall