Best Movies That Are Shorter Than an Hour

Summary

• Movies have gotten longer but some are under an hour – like Pretty Sweet and They Die by Dawn.
• The Wrong Trousers is a family-friendly must-watch part of Wallace & Gromit.
• Short films like A Girl in the River and La Jetée can pack a powerful punch in under an hour.

Aside from the occasional epic, most movies that hit the cinemas tended to stick to being 90–120 minutes long. Even then, the real long movies would often have an intermission in the middle to let people grab snacks or go to the bathroom. But for the past 25 years or so, they’ve gotten longer, with many movies exceeding 150 minutes with no breaks in between.

It would be fine enough if their content made it worthwhile, but many of them often feel puffed up with filler and require a follow-up to tell the full story. It’s enough to make a viewer wish they had a standalone short movie to power through instead. Which is where this list comes in, as this mix of cult classics, arthouse mainstays, and popular pictures are all under 1 hour long.

10

Pretty Sweet

Skateboard Stunts That Live Up to the Title

Movies usually offer a story to tell, but they don’t have to be. Sometimes, they can be a series of skits and stunts put together to be feature-length, like the Jackass movies. But if viewers are too squeamish for that, or only have an hour to spare, they can take in the skateboarding spectacle that is Pretty Sweet. On paper, it sees skateboarding groups Girl and Chocolate (named after the movie’s production companies) trying to outskate each other.

Nothing’s at stake, and nobody comes to blows. It’s just boarders doing their best tricks and stunts in a variety of settings, with a few skits and cameos from Jack Black and Will Arnett in between. Which is fun enough on its own. It even comes with outtakes offering more stunts, if viewers have a spare 14+ minutes to spare afterward.

9

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Musical Barbie Doll Biopic Courts Controversy

• Director: Todd Haynes.
• Release: 1987.
• Streaming: YouTube (bootlegs).

Before he made I’m Not There, a surreal musical biopic about Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes made a surreal musical biopic about Karen Carpenter. Only instead of portraying her with multiple actors, he used a bunch of Barbie dolls. That alone made Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story a cult hit, let alone its wider release getting shut down by a lawsuit.

The movie covers the last 17 years of Karen Carpenter’s life, including her passing from anorexia nervosa. It has snark, but it saves its scorn mainly for the people in and around Karen’s life, depicting them as controlling and overbearing. Though it wasn’t its artistic license with Karen’s story that got it sentenced to the world of bootleg releases, but its unlicensed use of 70s pop hits, which added to its cult appeal.

8

They Die by Dawn

Outlaws Decide to Take Each Other Out to Earn a Cash Prize

If viewers are after something a little more action-packed, They Die by Dawn offers a star-studded western flick that’s only 50 minutes long. It sees four outlaws, each with a bounty on their heads, settle their affairs with one big shootout in Langston, Oklahoma. The last person to survive takes home the collective bounty.

It’s essentially a prequel to The Harder They Fall, as one of the outlaws is its vengeance-seeking cowboy, Nat Love. It was just made nearly a decade earlier, and features different actors playing its few recurring roles, like Michael K. Williams, Rosario Dawson, Erykah Badu, and more. It’s fun, brisk, and freely available on YouTube in full, so viewers don’t need to shell out for another subscription service to check it out.

7

The Wave (1981)

Social Experiment Proves How Far-Right Populism Can Spread Fast

• Director: Alexander Grasshof.
• Release: October 1981.
• Streaming: YouTube, Internet Film Archive.

Made for TV in 1981, The Wave feels particularly pertinent today. Based on the actual ‘Third Wave’ social experiment by Ron Jones, it follows social studies teacher Ben Ross who, on being asked by his students how the Germans could allow the Nazis to rise to power, gradually comes up with new rules to boost school efficiency, leading to a new movement called ‘The Wave’.

They’re promoted as a youth group with a special salute and membership cards, and quickly gain traction throughout the school, until those who are opposed to it end up getting ostracized and denounced. It’s an effective look at how far-right movements can catch on. The difference is that the school ultimately stops when they realize where ‘The Wave’ comes from. In real life, it can go way beyond a school’s walls.

6

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Gambler Cheats His Way into Learning Riches Aren’t Everything

Wes Anderson wasn’t done with Roald Dahl after making Fantastic Mr Fox. He went back to the author to make The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which became the first of 4 shorts Anderson made based on the author’s work. Henry Sugar just happened to be the longest of the bunch, running for 40 minutes.

It follows Henry Sugar, an inveterate gambler who learned about a guru with clairvoyant powers. He aimed to master his ability to see beyond sight to cheat at gambling, only to discover something more worthwhile than getting rich. As brief as it is, Anderson captured the sweetness of Dahl’s story without compromising its edge, making it hit harder without feeling like a glurge-fest.

5

The Wrong Trousers

Criminal Penguin Uses Robot Trousers to Turn Unwitting Inventor into an Accomplice

For something more family-friendly, nearly any Wallace & Gromit short could feature on this list. Be it the sheep-saving shenanigans of A Close Shave, or their humble origins in A Grand Day Out. Others might prefer their later shorts, like A Matter of Loaf and Death or Vengeance Most Fowl. But to understand the latter, they’ll have had to have seen The Wrong Trousers.

The eccentric inventor takes in a new tenant who, unbeknownst to him, is the notorious criminal mastermind Feathers McGraw. When he turns Wallace’s new Techno-Trousers against him, it’s up to his dog Gromit to save the day. With its film noir-inspired cinematography, elaborate animated stunts, and charming characters, it’s still arguably the best of the W&G series.

4

Scorpio Rising

Occult Bikers Create Music Videos and Upset Everyone

• Director: Kenneth Anger.
• Release: October 1963.
• Streaming: YouTube, Internet Film Archive.

It’s not every day that a movie manages to upset Nazis and Lutherans into suing it, while being influential enough to find favor with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Yukio Mishima. But that’s what happened when Kenneth Anger made Scorpio Rising, a montage of shorts about Scorpio and his band of bikers getting ready for a night out.

Its mix of biker chic, occult themes, gay overtones, and far-right, Christian iconography made it a tour-de-force of imagery. Though while its visuals did inspire plenty of filmmakers (Refn’s Bronson in particular), it was the way it paired its scenes with its rock and roll soundtrack that really clicked with people, inspiring music videos and the way filmmakers can use music to bolster their scenes in general.

3

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

Honor Killing Survivor is Forced to Forgive Her Attackers

• Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
• Release: October 2015.
• Streaming: Max, AppleTV+.

Documentaries don’t have to be feature-length to hit hard. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness brought Pakistan’s laws on honor killing under scrutiny with just 40 minutes of footage. It followed Saba, who was shot by her father and uncle in an attempted honor killing to atone for her falling in love with a man formerly betrothed to her.

She survived, only to be pressured by her family and society at large into forgiving her would-be killers to get them off the hook. The movie delves deep into the history of honor killing, how it clashes with modern Pakistani society, and the human cost it exacted, be they survivors like Saba, or otherwise. As harsh as its subject is, it’s a must-see modern documentary.

2

La Jetée

The Perils of Time Travel Get Revealed Through Still Images

La Jetée is a tricky inclusion as, while it’s short, it’s not strictly a series of moving pictures. The movie largely uses still shots with narration and acted dialogue to tell its surreal, time-traveling story. Here, survivors of World War 3 manage to figure out time travel and send one man to both the past and the future to save the present. Albeit at a cost.

Through its use of fades and cuts, the movie manages to build up an oppressive atmosphere that really shows how dire things are in its present timeline. While the mournful soundtrack and use of dialogue, from the narration to the whispered asides, add to its unsettling nature. The action may be static, but it still managed to become one of the best time travel movies ever made.

1

Black Girl (1966)

Innate Bigotry Turns a Dream Job Into a Nightmare

• Director: Ousmane Sembène.
• Release: 1966.
• Streaming: Max, The Criterion Channel, Plex, Apple TV+.

Usually, Black Girl wouldn’t qualify for this list as Wikipedia lists its full runtime as 65 minutes. However, if viewers catch it on the Criterion Channel, it just about fits in at 59 mins, 42 seconds. In whatever way people catch it, they’ll be getting a classic piece of cinema, as it was one of the first flicks to give viewers worldwide an African perspective on society.

It follows Diouana, a woman from Senegal who gains the opportunity of a lifetime to work for a white couple in France. But her dreams of living comfortably and caring for children get dashed when she’s kept cooped up indoors and run ragged as a maid. It’s a neat encapsulation of racism, colonialism, and cultural contrast that makes it essential viewing for any cinephile.