A Glean movie guide
The 90-Minute Masterclass
Blink and you'll miss it.
Great stories that respect your time without sacrificing quality.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Toy Story
A benchmark for concise storytelling that changed animation forever.
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.
- 02
Run Lola Run
A high-octane, experimental race against time that never lets up.
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.
- 03
Before Sunset
A masterfully written romance told in near real-time across the streets of Paris.
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 razor-sharp mockumentary that packs more laughs into 86 minutes than most films do in two hours.
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
Phone Booth
A lean, high-tension thriller that squeezes maximum suspense out of a single location.
A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.
- 06
Shiva Baby
An expertly crafted pressure cooker of social anxiety that remains incredibly focused.
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.
- 07
Primer
An intellectually dense time-travel puzzle that proves you don't need a long runtime for big ideas.
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.
- 08
My Neighbor Totoro
A gentle, beautifully paced masterpiece that captures the magic of childhood in a compact frame.
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
- 09
Airplane!
The gold standard for rapid-fire comedy, delivering a joke-per-minute ratio that remains unmatched.
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
- 10
Don't Breathe
A claustrophobic and direct horror hit that wastes no time getting to the terror.
A group of teens break into a blind man's home thinking they'll get away with the perfect crime. They're wrong.
- 11
Rashomon
A revolutionary cinematic landmark that explores the nature of truth with incredible efficiency.
Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
- 12
Borat
A fearless and fast-paced satirical mockumentary that remains a landmark of 2000s comedy.
Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.