10 Highest-Rated Movies Under 90 Minutes, Ranked According to Letterboxd

There’s certainly a time and a place for long movies, with an emphasis on the time, because that’s what you need a lot of to fully appreciate them. The best epics make such an undertaking worthwhile, though, as anyone who’s seen the likes of Seven Samurai, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lord of the Rings, and Once Upon a Time in America (to mention just a few) can surely confirm.

But when time is in short supply, then there are plenty of other movies that’ll have your back, including the following. These ones are all particularly highly rated on Letterboxd, and all clock in at under 90 minutes in duration. They’re ranked below, with the runtimes acknowledged, but the ranking itself is determined by the average rating each film has, according to the users of Letterboxd.

10

‘City Lights’ (1931)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.3/5 (Runtime: 87 minutes)

As a filmmaker and actor, Charlie Chaplin absolutely mastered the art of being funny and dramatic at the same time, and few of his films illustrate this skill as effectively as City Lights. It’s hard to single it out as his absolute greatest when Modern Times and The Great Dictator are similarly strong, and all three have places within the top 200 highest-rated films on Letterboxd.

But City Lights is the highest, currently sitting at #110 at the time of writing, and it deserves it. There’s a simple story here about love, desire, wealth, and plenty of other broad themes explored effectively and without sacrificing entertainment value. Also, City Lights does all this not only in a runtime under 90 minutes, but also without spoken dialogue, managing to still feel timeless even though “talkies” have been the norm now for close to a century.

City Lights

Release Date

March 7, 1931

Runtime

87 Minutes

9

‘Where Is the Friend’s House?’ (1987)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 83 minutes)

Where Is the Friend’s House? is a very direct film, which makes sense, since it’s listed as being a family movie (genre-wise) alongside also being a drama. It follows a young boy who has to stop his friend from getting punished at school after he accidentally takes his friend’s notebook. Beyond the story, though, it’s got a good deal of things to say about growing up, and how children tend to view the world.

It’s an empathetic and approachable film, and one of the more straightforward ones Abbas Kiarostami ever directed. The runtime of Where Is the Friend’s House? fits everything it’s going for, and though it’s a relatively patiently paced movie, it ultimately doesn’t end up overstaying its welcome or feeling repetitive; it just does exactly what it needs to do.

8

‘It’s Such a Beautiful Day’ (2012)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 62 minutes)

There’s little else out there that can be compared to It’s Such a Beautiful Day. It’s barely over an hour long, and it is centered entirely on one man, Bill, and he’s a stick figure who doesn’t speak. Instead, the film has a narrator, and the narration and some rather simple animation work in tandem to show Bill’s mundane life and the ways it starts to fall apart.

If that sounds a bit depressing, yeah, It’s Such a Beautiful Day is also a Depressing Day, but it matches some quiet sadness with a ton of effective absurd humor. And the story here goes beyond Bill, with It’s Such a Beautiful Day exploring existential ideas and becoming surprisingly thought-provoking by the time it wraps up. It’s truly impressive just how much is packed into such a short runtime here.

7

‘Sherlock Jr.’ (1924)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 45 minutes)

If you like some of the previously mentioned Charlie Chaplin movies but would rather see action paired with slapstick comedy instead of more dramatic elements, then Buster Keaton’s best works are all must-watches. One of his best and most direct films is Sherlock Jr., which is over a century old and puts a good many more modern action movies to shame… if it can be counted as an action movie.

The plot barrels forward, there are lots of set pieces, and plenty of memorable stunts/camera tricks, so Sherlock Jr. qualifies. And there’s so much by way of creativity and excitement condensed into a movie that, by some standards, isn’t even feature-length. If a feature-length movie needs to be over an hour, then Sherlock Jr., at 45 minutes, would be a short film. But it’s a quality over quantity kind of thing, since there’s more on offer here than in various other movies double (or maybe even triple) this film’s length.

6

‘Perfect Blue’ (1997)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 82 minutes)

Given its rating isn’t far off being a 5/5, it’s fair to assume that quite a few people who used Letterboxd do indeed believe that Perfect Blue is perfect. As far as anime films of the past few decades go, few can claim to be as striking and as unnerving as this one, as it’s a psychological thriller/horror movie that uses its unique animation style to make things more unsettling and intense.

It’s a look at the downsides of fame, centering on a pop star and the alarming things that start to happen around her, which in turn leads to horrifying things happening internally/psychologically, too. It’s probably better not to say much more than that, because Perfect Blue is well-regarded for being unpredictable and uncompromising, so the less you know (if you haven’t seen it already), the better.

5

‘Persona’ (1966)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 84 minutes)

Persona is another film that’s hard to summarize, both because it’s mind-bending and giving out much info by way of summary will probably dilute the power the film has, when experienced. So, being as vague as possible, it’s about two very different women, with one being a nurse and the other being a mysterious actress with some sort of condition. And after they meet, weird things happen. Kind of.

It’s a very dreamlike movie at times, but then it’s also disquieting enough to potentially be closer to nightmare territory. And there’s a good deal that’s not clear narratively speaking, but what’s important is the way Persona can make one feel. That’s the part that is harder to put into words, especially in just a couple of paragraphs. Watch it for yourself. Even if you hate it for whatever reason, it’s only 84 minutes lost.

4

‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’ (1928)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 82 minutes)

Cracking the top 50 on Letterboxd (again, as at the time of writing), The Passion of Joan of Arc still resonates as a powerful dramatic film close to 100 years on from when it was first released. Plenty of other movies since have covered aspects of Jeanne d’Arc’s short but impactful life, though all live in the shadow of this one, which is largely focused on her final days.

Calling it a courtroom drama feels a little strange, considering it’s set so long ago (and itself was made quite long ago), but that is more or less what The Passion of Joan of Arc manages to be. It’s a film that feels much bigger than its runtime would suggest, mainly owing to how ambitious it was on a technical and cinematic front. Compared to a good many films of its era, the cinematography here really is something to behold.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

Release Date

April 21, 1928

Runtime

82 Minutes

• 

  Maria Falconetti

  Jeanne d’Arc

• 

  Eugène Silvain

  Bishop Pierre Cauchon

3

‘Paths of Glory’ (1957)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.4/5 (Runtime: 88 minutes)

One of the harshest and most brutally realistic of all World War I movies, Paths of Glory was arguably the first all-out masterpiece Stanley Kubrick ever directed. And, even though later films of his were bigger in scope and longer in runtime, Paths of Glory still feels worthy of consideration when it comes to crowning what his very best film was. Well, it’s a contender, at least.

Also, like The Passion of Joan of Arc, it’s something of a slightly unconventional legal drama, being about a court-martial instead of a more expected criminal or civil case. That’s the avenue taken to exploring the fallout following a failed offensive, and those combat-free scenes end up being just as harrowing and bitter as the prolonged sequence of violence near the film’s start is. It takes place well over 100 years ago, and was made close to 70 years ago, but what Paths of Glory has to say about war still feels timeless.

2

‘Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion’ (1997)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.5/5 (Runtime: 87 minutes)

A film that concludes Neon Genesis Evangelion, sort of, The End of Evangelion does function best if you’ve seen the original series. That series had an even more ambiguous ending in its final episode, so The End of Evangelion, in part, offers more by way of finality, but then it also ventures into some wild new directions that provoke additional questions and cause further discomfort.

It’s a lot. The whole series was a lot, and then this concluding movie was even more, and that’s pretty impressive considering it clocks in at under 90 minutes. In contrast, though, the most recent “ending” for Evangelion, 2021’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, is one of the longest animated movies ever, and not far off being double the length of The End of Evangelion (given its runtime is 155 minutes).

1

‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988)

Letterboxd Rating: 4.5/5 (Runtime: 89 minutes)

Grave of the Fireflies is the 25th highest-rated film on Letterboxd, and has more than earned the right to be ranked so high, considering how impactful it is. It’s easily one of the greatest animated movies ever made, and also one of the most harrowing, given it takes place during World War II and focuses on a brother and sister who struggle to survive on their own in the war’s final months.

It’s one of those films that’s worth watching once, but it’s hard to imagine watching it again, given it’s unbearably heavy and brutally honest about the way warfare can impact non-combatants. Grave of the Fireflies lacks sentimentality or anything that can make its anti-war message go down any easier. It’s just harsh, raw, and unrelenting, living up to its lofty reputation and indeed being one of the saddest films of all time.

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