Great Movies Under 90 Minutes
Some nights the real question isn't what to watch but how long you've got. Every film here runs about ninety minutes or less, and none of them is here just for being short. They finish when the story does, so you can be in bed at a reasonable hour without settling for filler.
Short films tend to work in one of two ways. Some are contained: one room, one car or one night, like Locke, The Guilty, Shiva Baby and Host, where the tight frame is the source of the tension. Others are dense, packing a full story or a joke every few seconds into less time, like Run Lola Run, Airplane! and The Naked Gun (2025). Contained films reward a quiet room; dense ones are better with company.
With kids in the room, Flow, Toy Story, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and the new Wallace & Gromit are the safe bets. Palm Springs and Shiva Baby are for adults, and Host is properly frightening. For other kinds of night, see Family Movie Night Picks, Funny Movies and Date Night Movies.
Palm Springs
Movie · 2020If you only have time for one, start here. It's a romcom, a sci-fi puzzle and a hangout comedy at once, and it doesn't waste a scene getting going. J.K. Simmons turns up to great effect. Sex, swearing and drug use make it one for adults and older teens.
Toy Story
Movie · 1995Proof that short doesn't mean slight. Pixar's first feature introduces two rival toys, builds a friendship, stages a rescue and lands an emotional ending without a spare minute. The safest choice here for young kids, though Sid's creepy mutant toys rattle some preschoolers. Grown-ups won't be bored.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Movie · 2024The newest Wallace & Gromit, and as good as the classics. Wallace's smart garden gnome goes rogue, and a certain penguin from The Wrong Trousers is pulling the strings. Gentle, clever and packed with background jokes, it suits everyone from about six; the marching evil gnomes can unsettle preschoolers.
The Guilty
Movie · 2018One room, one headset, one phone call. A police officer on emergency dispatch duty takes a call from a woman who has been abducted and tries to save her without leaving his desk. All the tension is in what you hear. In Danish with subtitles, and better than the American remake.
Flow
Movie · 2024A cat, a flood, a boat and a handful of other animals who have to learn to share it. There's no dialogue at all, so there's nothing to translate, though the cat's many near-drownings make it best from about seven. It won the Oscar for best animated feature, and it's breathtaking to look at.
Run Lola Run
Movie · 1998The fastest film here in every sense. Lola has twenty minutes to find a fortune and save her boyfriend, and the movie runs that race three times over a pounding techno beat. It's in German with subtitles, but you'll barely notice them.
The Naked Gun (2025)
Movie · 2025The rare legacy sequel that actually gets the joke. Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. completely straight while sight gags pile up behind him, and Pamela Anderson is a delight. Silly, crude in places, and over well before the jokes run thin.
A Quiet Place
Movie · 2018Proof that a monster movie doesn't need two hours. A family lives in near-silence because the creatures hunt by sound, and the film barely wastes a breath. There's very little gore; the tension is the whole thing. A good first horror film for curious teens.
Before Sunset
Movie · 2004Nine years after Before Sunrise, Jesse and Céline meet again in Paris with only an afternoon before his flight. It plays out almost in real time, mostly walking and talking. Better if you've seen the first film, but it stands alone as a perfect short date-night pick.
Locke
Movie · 2013Tom Hardy, a car, a motorway at night and a series of phone calls. That's the whole film, and it's riveting: a careful man's life comes apart one call at a time because of a single decision he refuses to dodge. No violence at all, just pressure.
Shiva Baby
Movie · 2020A comedy shot like a horror film. A college student at a family shiva runs into her sugar daddy, his wife and baby, and her ex-girlfriend, all in one cramped house. Excruciating and very funny, with frank sexual talk throughout.
The Iron Giant
Movie · 1999A boy hides a giant robot from a paranoid government agent in 1950s Maine, in Brad Bird's first feature. It tells a big story at a brisk pace without ever feeling rushed, and the ending hits adults just as hard as it hits kids.
Coherence
Movie · 2013Shot in one house on a tiny budget, and it outsmarts most studio sci-fi. Friends at a dinner party notice something wrong after a comet passes overhead. The less you know going in, the better, and the short length means the ideas never sag.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Movie · 2021A one-inch shell with shoes on, voiced by Jenny Slate, lives with his grandmother and wants to find the rest of his family. Made in stop-motion and filmed like a documentary, it's funny, tiny in scale and quietly moving. Lovely for kids and adults together.
Host
Movie · 2020The shortest film here, and among the scariest. A group of friends hold a séance on a video call during lockdown, and something answers. Made remotely during the pandemic, it uses the laptop screen brilliantly. Watch it on a laptop, in the dark, for the full effect.
Petite Maman
Movie · 2021A grieving eight-year-old meets a girl her own age in the woods, and the girl is her mother as a child. No special effects and no explanations, just a gentle fable about parents and children. In French with subtitles, and fine for kids.
The Vast of Night
Movie · 2019A small-town 1950s mystery told almost entirely through voices: a switchboard operator and a radio DJ trace a strange signal over New Mexico. Long, gliding takes and patient storytelling. Made for anyone who loves old radio dramas or The Twilight Zone.
Flee
Movie · 2021An animated documentary in which a man finally tells the full story of his escape from Afghanistan as a boy, including a secret he kept for years. The animation protects his identity and makes the memories vivid. Mostly subtitled, and hard-hitting.
Airplane!
Movie · 1980Still the gold standard for gags per minute. A disaster-movie parody where every line is a setup, and Leslie Nielsen delivers absurdities with a perfectly straight face. Some jokes have aged badly and there's brief nudity, but the hit rate is astonishing.
Stop Making Sense
Movie · 1984Possibly the best concert film ever made, and you don't need to know Talking Heads to love it. David Byrne starts alone with a boombox, then the band arrives song by song until the stage is full. Joyful, funny and short enough for a weeknight.
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Picks are editorial recommendations. Streaming availability changes by region and over time — the “where to stream” links check current availability on JustWatch.