Blame it on expertise, blame it on TikTok, or blame it on the multitasking nature of our capitalist society. The actual fact is, for many of us, our consideration spans have solely gotten shorter. A two-and-a-half-hour film? Ha! That’s an indulgence reserved for particular events or the uncommon few filmmakers who earn these extreme runtimes ( you, Dune).
We the individuals are drained, we’re impatient, and we need to veg out after work with a rattling good film in 100 minutes or much less. Fortunately, a brief runtime isn’t a knock on high quality, and HBO Max presently has one of many largest choices of nice short-ass films on the market. This record began at 45 entries, which I painfully but fastidiously curated down to only 10 movies to fulfill a wide range of film tastes.
1. Shiva Child
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Right here’s a nightmare situation: You’re a younger, bi Jewish lady who simply completed hooking up with one in all your sex-work shoppers — he’s wealthy and cute and, hey, perhaps you kinda like him. You present up on the shiva your dad and mom dragged you to, and oh fuck, Sugar Daddy walks in…with a scorching spouse…holding a new child child. And he is aware of your dad and mom. Oh, and your ex-girlfriend, who’s been a complete flake recently, is there too. Emma Seligman’s debut characteristic is just like the Jewish comedic model of Trey Edward Schults’ Krisha, solely it finds the humor (and the suffocating nervousness) within the chaos. Even higher, it’s solely an hour and 17 minutes.
The best way to watch: Shiva Child is now streaming on HBO Max.
2. Woman Snowblood
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Any Tarantino fan who hasn’t seen Woman Snowblood, please cease what you’re doing and go watch among the finest movies of the ‘70s, and the key inspiration behind Kill Invoice. Toshiya Fujita’s 1973 movie is just about the blueprint for feminine revenge thrillers. After 4 males sexually assault a girl and kill her husband, she has a daughter for the only real objective of making an murderer to someday wreak vengeance upon the boys. Yuki, aka Woman Snowblood (Meiko Kaji), and her sword will cease at nothing to just do that. Gushing with each blood and chic magnificence, Woman Snowblood is a scrumptious, violent deal with.
The best way to watch: Woman Snowblood is now streaming on HBO Max.
3. Transient Encounter
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David Lean’s Transient Encounter is the quintessential romance, and, dare I say, among the finest movies ever made. A married lady (Celia Johnson) and a married man (Trevor Howard) meet by probability at a prepare station. They stumble upon one another once more and shortly a quietly ferocious love affair begins. However that love can solely exist one Wednesday per week on the railway station the place their paths collide, miles away from their loving but dim marriages again dwelling. Whereas an extremely easy romance components, every body of Transient Encounter, potently shot by Robert Krasker, carries the load of 100 hearts breaking and falling in love abruptly. It’s the cinematic encapsulation of simply how wonderful and torturous love can really feel whenever you’re not even searching for it.
The best way to watch: Transient Encounter is now streaming on HBO Max.
4. Delivery
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It’s been a decade since the one you love husband, Sean, died and also you’re lastly prepared to maneuver on and marry a pleasant man. Then, all of a sudden, a 10-year-old child walks into your home and tells you he’s Sean, reincarnated. [Insert baffled Nicole Kidman laughter] Insane, proper? How foolish! The brilliance of Jonathan Glazer’s Delivery is how its solid of stuffy Manhattan elites method such a infantile proposition with matter-of-fact maturity. Kidman’s widow Anna, alongside together with her mom (Lauren Bacall) and fiancé (Danny Huston), at first dismiss it as foolishness, but stay curious as they permit the boy to hold round. However Anna’s curiosity quickly turns to conviction in a efficiency that’s directly delicate and a surge of large emotion, usually unfolding with out dialogue. It’s a movie of staggering capital ‘A’ appearing, and one which leaves you questioning, feeling a bit disturbed, and confused.
The best way to watch: Delivery is now streaming on HBO Max.
5. Finest in Present
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There will not be a single unfunny second in Christopher Visitor’s Finest in Present. A mockumentary about canine present contestants and their valuable pups, Visitor’s movie is a chef’s kiss of satirical comedy that options an all-timer solid of comedic actors at a few of their absolute best. You’ve acquired Parker Posey (in braces) and Michael Hitchcock as an uptight suburban couple who go to remedy to course of their canine watching them have intercourse. There’s Jennifer Coolidge because the spouse of an previous millionaire and her lesbian canine coach Jane Lynch. Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins are the epitome of Palm Springs older-younger gays. And naturally, we get Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy magnificently riffing off each other as a Florida couple. If this Starbucks bit makes you snicker, Finest In Present is for you.
The best way to watch: Finest in Present is now streaming on HBO Max.
6. Desert Hearts
Credit score: Desert Coronary heart Prods / Kobal/Shutterstock
Earlier than the lesbian romances of the New Queer Cinema motion, and lengthy earlier than the present streak of lesbian interval dramas, there was Donna Deitch’s 1985 movie Desert Hearts — which, sure, is technically a interval piece itself. Set within the late ’50s, Vivian, a New York English professor who wears tailor-made skirt fits and pearls, strikes to Reno to break up. She stays at a close-by ranch the place she meets Cay, a tricky, freewheeling cowgirl kind who unabashedly wears her queerness on her sleeve. What follows is a protracted courtship of brewing sexual rigidity and tender exchanges that can make any Carol fan swoon.
The best way to watch: Desert Hearts is now streaming on HBO Max.
7. Blood Easy
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For those who can match a pleasant, tight homicide plot into 96 minutes and make it percolate with suspense, drip with bursts of violence, and ooze with fashion, then you could have a rattling high quality film in your arms. The Coen brothers positive did that with 1984’s Blood Easy, which occurred to be their (incredible) directing debut and Frances McDormand’s appearing debut. It has every little thing you’d need from a neo-noir and is the kind of movie that’s fortunately quick sufficient to observe many times, and nonetheless get a thrill from.
The best way to watch: Blood Easy is now streaming on HBO Max.
8. Within the Temper for Love
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Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece isn’t a film that you just watch, however one that you just really feel. It’s a romance that emphasizes the will and longing tucked inside quiet glances, beneath temporary moments of contact, in between phrases. Set in 1962 Hong Kong, we watch the well mannered interactions of neighbors Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) and Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) as they cross paths of their shared condominium constructing and all through city. They quickly be taught their spouses are having an affair with one another, and in time, Chow and Su start to develop a deep love for each other. Within the Temper for Love’s magnificence comes from Cheung and Leung’s aching performances, the beautiful, affected person cinematography of Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-Bing, and a swooning soundtrack that dares you to maintain a dry eye. Each second of this 98-minute movie is pure perfection.
The best way to watch: Within the Temper for Love is now streaming on HBO Max.
9. Beetlejuice
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I imply, it’s Beetlejuice… what extra is there to say? It’s at all times a pleasure to revisit — or go to, in case you’ve someway by no means skilled this Tim Burton traditional — Catherine O’Hara lip-synching for her life to the Banana Boat Track, child goth Winona Rider pouting round in a black veil, or Michael Keaton in an infinite gross-out competitors with himself. For those who want some fantastical kooky enjoyable, or only a fast 92-minute throwback to the times of excellent ol’ Burton imaginative world-building, you’ll be able to’t go flawed calling within the bio-exorcist.
The best way to watch: Beetlejuice is now streaming on HBO Max.
10. Persona
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For those who take pleasure in a psychological chamber piece about crumbling identities with nice actresses actressing, Persona is basically the GOAT. Suppose alongside the strains of Black Swan, The Clouds of Sils Maria, Mulholland Drive, or Queen of Earth, all movies that owe a bit one thing to Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 traditional. After actress Elisabet Vogler (performed by the always-excellent Liv Ullmann) has all of a sudden gone silent, she arrives on a distant island together with her nurse, Alma (the additionally at all times glorious Bibi Andersson). What follows is a cinematic exploration of the human psyche fractured, dismantled, and imploding in on itself. For those who benefit from the trip of Persona and are new to Bergman, fortunately most of his different movies presently on HBO Max additionally clock in at slightly below 100 minutes.
The best way to watch: Persona is now streaming on HBO Max.
