What do the Christopher Visitor mockumentary Mascots, the animated Captain Underpants film, the gender-swapped She’s All That remake, the slasher film The Babysitter, Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail all have in widespread?
Till not too long ago, completely nothing. However now they’re all grouped collectively on Netflix; listed beneath a style I’ve by no means seen earlier than in any context. This style is so easy it’s sort of astonishing nobody has used it till now (not less than that I‘m conscious of).
It’s referred to as “90-Minute Films.”
It first caught my eye a pair weeks in the past as I used to be scrolling my very own Netflix account. Since then I’ve seen it repeatedly on the service’s residence web page, the place (not less than by myself account) it’s typically listed between genres like “Cult Films,” “Household Animation,” and “Traditional Films.”
The films that seem beneath the “90-Minute Films” tag have modified often over the past month and are, I’m certain, based mostly not less than partly on issues I’ve seen up to now. Once I checked out it once more this morning, the titles included the aforementioned Monty Python and the Holy Grail, together with the latest Jackass 4.5 and The Polka King, a biopic starring Jack Black.
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These are all comedies of 1 kind or one other, however any time I’ve appeared on the 90-Minute Films on Netflix, I’ve discovered fairly a number of totally different sorts of movies there, collected from a wide range of well-established genres. Listed here are 5 films that Netflix positioned there not too long ago that provide you with a reasonably good thought of what number of types of movies yow will discover simply by this one row of titles.
“90-Minute Films” On Netflix
Netflix added a brand new style to its lineup, and admittedly, we find it irresistible.
For those who Google “90-minute films,” there are a great deal of lists of suggestions for films with runtimes of an hour and a half or much less. However I’ve by no means seen 90-minute films used as a style unto itself earlier than. I labored at a number of video shops in my youthful days, together with New York Metropolis’s legendary Kim’s Video, which grouped its large assortment of VHS, DVD, and Blu-rays into greater than 450 totally different genres — and even they didn’t have a “90-Minute Films” style.
Kim’s, which had a well-deserved fame as a critical repository for an eclectic spectrum of movies, most likely would by no means have stooped to advocate titles as a result of they have been comparatively brief. (I may see Kim’s including a bit for “Three-Hour Films” earlier than they might have added one for “90-Minute Films.”) For Netflix customers, although, that is a particularly helpful addition to a streaming service.
Remember that appreciating the utility of the 90-Minute Films style does not imply I believe fashionable films are too lengthy, or that I hate three-hour films. I beloved the three-hour Oppenheimer simply final week. If I get the possibility, I’d like to see it once more on the massive display screen earlier than it leaves theaters.
However that’s simply it; a three-hour movie is a dedication, and generally in our busy schedules we simply don’t have time for that a lot film, irrespective of how transcendently wonderful it could be. Most weekdays, for instance, I work on ScreenCrush from 9 to five or 6, then pause to have dinner with my household and get my children into mattress. As soon as everybody else within the household goes to sleep, I sometimes write for a number of extra hours. After that, I’m often too wound as much as sleep and I need to watch one thing — however nothing too lengthy, as a result of I need to be in mattress myself by round midnight.
In that context, an Oppenheimer isn’t going to work. I want a brief film! In reality, scrolling Netflix at 10:30 not too long ago was precisely how I discovered their 90-Minute Films style within the first place. (That night time I turned on Holy Grail for the sixth gabillionth time.)
When Netflix is within the information today, it’s often as a result of they did one thing that ticked individuals off. They removed their least expensive plan with out advertisements, forcing subscribers to pay extra or settle for watching films and exhibits with commercials. Or they cracked down on password sharing, forcing individuals to pay a couple of dollars a month to make use of their mother and father’ account. Some have even blamed their enterprise mode for the present Hollywood strikes. (At the least one article dubbed it “the Netflix strike.”)
However generally, regardless of all of that, the corporate deserves a bit credit score, and that is a kind of instances. I don’t know why it took so lengthy to get a 90-minute films style, and it may most likely use a snappier identify. However I’m glad it’s right here.
