We’ve all been there before: looking for a movie to watch, with limited time and/or energy, only to find all the options you’re interested in are longer than you have the space for. Occasionally, this also happens with television, as we’ve seen with Stranger Things 4 Volume 2, whose two episodes run 85 minutes and a whopping 150 minutes, respectively.
That’s what we’re here for! The Polygon curation team has pulled together the following list of excellent short movies you can watch at home. To give us a yardstick (and in light of the unbelievable length of those Stranger Things episodes), we’ve picked movies that are 84 minutes or less, i.e., shorter than either episode of Stranger Things 4 Volume 2. Frankly, it would have been far too easy to pick movies shorter than the two-and-a-half-hour finale.
These movies range across a variety of genres, eras, countries, and moods. Enjoy!
Length: 74 minutes
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder, on Kanopy or Hoopla with a library card, for free with ads on Tubi or Plex, or for digital rental or purchase on Apple or Google Play
Robert Wiene’s 1920 masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema tells the story of a young man whose love life is thrown into turmoil amid a rash of heinous murders perpetrated by a somnambulist at the behest of a twisted hypnotist calling himself Dr. Caligari. With impressive set designs, a labyrinthine plot, and a shocking twist ending, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an absolutely fantastic short feature. —Toussaint Egan
Length: 80 minutes
Where to watch: Available to digital rental or purchase on Apple, Google Play, and other VOD vendors
Richard Linklater’s 2004 follow-up to his romantic drama Before Sunrise sees Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline
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