A Glean movie guide
Lean & Mean: Great Movies Under 90 Minutes
All killer, no filler.
Proof that you don't need three hours to tell a masterpiece.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Run Lola Run
A relentless, high-energy sprint through Berlin that reinvents itself three times over.
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
- 02
Toy Story
A perfectly paced adventure that changed animation forever without wasting a single second.
Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences.
- 03
Before Sunset
An intimate, real-time conversation in Paris that captures a lifetime of longing in just 80 minutes.
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
- 04
What We Do in the Shadows
A hilarious mockumentary that packs more jokes per minute than almost any other modern comedy.
Vampire housemates try to cope with the complexities of modern life and show a newly turned hipster some of the perks of being undead.
- 05
Following
Christopher Nolan’s lean debut is a twisty neo-noir that proves how much tension you can build in 70 minutes.
Bill, an idle, unemployed aspiring writer, walks the crowded streets of London following randomly chosen strangers, a seemingly innocent entertainment that becomes dangerous when he crosses paths with a mysterious character.
- 06
Airplane!
A legendary slapstick comedy that maintains a breakneck pace of sight gags and iconic one-liners.
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
- 07
Perfect Blue
A haunting and visually stunning psychological thriller that blurs the line between reality and nightmare.
Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
- 08
Don't Breathe
A stripped-back, terrifyingly effective home invasion thriller where every single breath counts.
A group of teens break into a blind man's home thinking they'll get away with the perfect crime. They're wrong.
- 09
Shiva Baby
A masterclass in sustained social anxiety that feels like a thriller despite taking place at a funeral.
College student Danielle must cover her tracks when she unexpectedly runs into her sugar daddy at a shiva - with her parents, ex-girlfriend and family friends also in attendance.
- 10
Host
Filmed entirely via Zoom, this 57-minute supernatural horror is a lean, modern jolt to the system.
Six friends hire a medium to hold a séance via Zoom during lockdown — but they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong. When an evil spirit starts invading their homes, they begin to realise they might not survive the night.
- 11
Primer
A dense and intellectually demanding time-travel puzzle that respects your intelligence and your time.
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
- 12
The Iron Giant
A beautifully animated, emotionally resonant story about friendship that hits harder than most three-hour epics.
In the small town of Rockwell, Maine in October 1957, a giant metal machine befriends a nine-year-old boy and ultimately finds its humanity by unselfishly saving people from their own fears and prejudices.