From horror to romance, some of the best movies around clock in at under 90 minutes - here are just a handful of my favourites...
Ah, discourse. Don’t we all just love it? Nah, of course we don’t – and why would we? Most of the time it’s just someone airing a bad opinion on Twitter and then a load of people getting needlessly angry about it. There are exceptions, obviously, but this works as a general rule, and most days we can ignore whatever garbage gets said.
Sometimes, however, the garbage in question is so monumentally stupid that it’s tricky to let go of – and that’s the case here. Last week Warner Bros announced that the new Mortal Kombat film would run for 110 minutes – or one hour fifty – and most people carried on with their days as normal. Not this person, however:
Firstly, imagine getting angry about a film’s runtime. Just picture it: having so few other worries that you can be this angry about a film where supernatural beings punch each other and that’s the whole point. Imagine having the time to care that much. Blissful.
Secondly, let’s just examine what this guy’s said: he thinks that 110 minutes isn’t long enough to properly develop the characters in Mortal Kombat. Okay, sure. You’re wrong, but okay. Plenty of movies have done more character development in less time. Still, this is tiny compared to what comes next, so let’s move on.
A quick glance at the replies (always risky on Twitter) showed how divisive the comment was: some people agreed, some people didn’t, and some people were just taking the piss out of how much this guy cared about a Mortal Kombat movie. But this tweet caught my eye:
Now this is wild. Sort of funny, but wild. The implication is that if your movie is less than two hours long, it isn’t a proper movie. And, like, what’s that about? I have to laugh, but this is such a ridiculous comment to make – and it really got me thinking about my favourite shorter-length movies. So, with that in mind, here are some of the best movies around that don’t take up thousands of hours of your time – and that you might not have seen!
Host (2020) – 56 minutes
Rob Savage’s Host is one of the smartest movies I’ve ever seen. It was also one of my favourite horrors of 2020, and about the only good thing to come out of the pandemic. Following a group of friends who attempt a séance over Zoom, things quickly turn sour once a malevolent presence enters the meeting, and leaves the group fearing for their lives.
That it takes place over Zoom is probably Host’s biggest strength: in the vein of great thrillers like Searching, we view the whole film on a laptop screen, and are only able to see what each character’s webcam is showing us. It’s packed full of fantastic scares, but it’s the dialogue that really sells Host – every actor gives their all, and the movie is so much better for their dedication. You can find it on Shudder or on Blu-ray, but I definitely wouldn’t advise watching this one alone – or the night before that meeting…
Before Sunset (2004) – 77 minutes
When people ask me what my favourite movie of all time is, the answer that springs to my lips most often is Before Sunset. I’ve spent nearly a year trying to figure out why that is, and I think it’s because this movie told me things. At a time when my life felt like it was falling apart and all I wanted to do was escape from it, Before Sunset was there to pick me up and give me a dose of something real.
‘Real’ is, I think, the only word that does Before Sunset any justice. Because this is a film that feels real, in the truest sense of the word: it plays out in real time, the dialogue feels real, the performances are real – but more important than all of that is that its love feels real. And that’s what makes this movie so special. It showed me so much about love that as the credits rolled, it was all I could do to sit and weep at what I’d just seen. This is a film that is beyond perfect, and to have achieved that in only 77 minutes is nothing short of incredible.
Fruitvale Station (2013) – 82 minutes
Fruitvale Station is perhaps Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece. In comparison to Black Panther it’s a tiny, tiny film, but it’s all the better for it. It follows Oscar Grant in the final hours of his life as he crosses paths with all manner of people before his murder at the hands of a police officer on New Year’s Day 2009. It is based on a true story.
Of all the films I’ve listed here, Fruitvale Station is perhaps the most difficult to watch – mainly because of its themes of Black suffering and police brutality, and the increased weight that these now hold in the wake of the horrific murders of so many Black people by those apparently sworn to protect them. But Coogler isn’t interested in trauma porn: he’s more focused on what makes Oscar tick, and that’s what makes Fruitvale Station such a fantastic watch. You won’t be dying to see it again anytime soon, but I promise it is worth your time.
Saint Maud (2020) – 84 minutes
If I’m being totally honest I could have packed this list with horror movies. More so than any other genre, it seems, horror is where short and sweet works best. Not that that’s true for all horror flicks, of course: two of my favourites from the past few years, Midsommar and The Invisible Man, have been well over the two-hour mark – but there’s something admittedly special about a horror film that manages to scare the shit out of you in less than 90 minutes. And that’s exactly what Saint Maud does.
It’s rare that a movie leaves me so rattled that I struggle to move afterwards, but that’s the effect that Saint Maud had on me. Even on a second viewing, knowing what was coming, I was startled by how affected I was: the film’s final shot in particular oozes terror, and will haunt me for years to come. This is a truly powerful film that has an incredible hold over me when I watch it – for days after I saw it for the first time, I was convinced that something was with me, behind me, just out of my eyeline. Rarely has anything genuinely scared me so – but then again, rarely have I seen anything as genuinely scary as Saint Maud.
And that’s your lot! There are tons more movies that I could add to this list but honestly I’m very busy right now, so this’ll do. I had fun with this though, so if you’d like to see a part two then please let me know!
Got some really fun stuff planned for the next few months, so stay tuned for that – and in the meantime, as ever, stay safe and well. I’ll see you soon.
Images, top to bottom: Castle Rock Entertainment, Shudder, Castle Rock, Altitude, StudioCanal