10 Amazing Movies Under 90 Minutes Long
4. Chronicle
Runtime: 83 minutes
The found-footage format was very much a gimmick by the time Chronicle released in 2012, and it was hard to get excited about the film for this reason alone.
And yet, the movie felt utterly innovative, splicing a superhero origin story with a teen drama and peppering it with a grounded, gritty feel evoked by the shaky-cam that was used to film the entire thing.
It really is amazing that Chronicle is as short as it is. It has three lead characters (one of whom transitions from likeable outsider to all-powerful supervillain), it has to bring them all together in a believable fashion, it has to make their friendship work and then it has to tear them apart.
There's a lot going on here, and it's testament to the power of Josh Trank's direction (and the superb performances of his three leads) that so much of this meaning is conveyed through body movements, tics and facial expressions; there isn't a single second that feels wasted.
Oh, and that high-flying finale is one of the most gut-wrenching final confrontations the superhero genre has ever offered.