Great Films Under Two Hours

The first fully computer-animated feature is also one of the tightest films ever made. A cowboy doll’s place as the favorite toy is threatened by a shiny new space ranger, and not a minute is wasted.

Watch it if: you want a classic that is over before anyone gets sleepy.

A lion cub runs from his past and has to decide whether to go home and take his place as king. It’s Hamlet with songs, in under an hour and a half.

Watch it if: you want something everyone knows the words to.

Twelve jurors, one hot room, and one holdout who isn’t sure the defendant is guilty. Nearly the whole film takes place around a single table, and it is more gripping than most thrillers.

Watch it if: you love a good argument.

Truman Burbank slowly realizes that his town is a set, his neighbors are actors and his whole life is a TV show. It features some of Jim Carrey’s best dramatic work, and it feels more relevant every year.

Watch it if: you want something funny, sad and clever at once.

A city boy and a country girl who have never met start waking up in each other’s bodies. What begins as a body-swap comedy turns into something much bigger. One of the most beautiful animated films of its decade.

Watch it if: you want romance with a turn you won’t see coming.

Five criminals meet in a police lineup, and a job gone wrong leaves one of them explaining it all to a customs agent. A puzzle box of a crime film with a famous final few minutes. Avoid spoilers.

Watch it if: you like to be fooled.

A young jazz drummer at a top music school comes under the wing of a teacher who believes greatness requires cruelty. It’s a music film edited like a thriller, and the final ten minutes are extraordinary.

Watch it if: you want your pulse raised without a single car chase.

A man who can’t form new memories hunts for his wife’s killer using notes, photographs and tattoos. Christopher Nolan tells the story backwards, so you are as disoriented as the hero is.

Watch it if: you want a film to argue about afterwards.