While not every movie released in the 1990s was a winner, it's safe to say that it was an overall strong decade for cinema. There were a host of great films released between 1990 and 1999, and of those great ones, the selection is surprisingly diverse. It was a decade that saw the release of plenty of iconic blockbusters, compelling small/independent movies, and plenty of classic international films not in the English language, too.

The best 90s movies also happen to be some of the best movies of all time, given it was overall such a strong decade for cinema. Those who are after some of the best movies from the 90s should find the following titles to represent an overall fantastic starting point, and inclusive of many of the decade's greatest. What follows is a ranking of some of the best of the best, when it came to movies that were released in the 1990s. That 10-year period may be way back in the past now, but the best movies of the 90s live on, and will likely continue to do so indefinitely. The following ranking aims to highlight genuinely great movies and/or movies that summarized the decade and its overall feel in some way. These movies have all endured and aged well to this day, and each one is essential viewing to movie fans both casual and fanatical.

45 'Maborosi' (1995)

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Hirokazu Kore-eda is a filmmaker whose profile has risen considerably in more recent years, with a string of successful movies including Shoplifters, Broker, and the boldly unsettling Monster. He’s been crafting compelling films for decades, though, with 1995’s Maborosi demonstrating this well, functioning as the sort of brutally honest, quiet, and moving character-focused drama that his later films were also praised for being.

Maborosi is about one young woman having her life upturned after the sudden passing of her husband, with such an event necessitating her moving and then trying to rediscover a reason for continuing to go on. The focus on grief and the lingering effects that a tragic event can have make Maborosi a difficult film to watch unless one’s in the right mood, but it tackles this difficult premise expertly, and also stands as a remarkably beautiful-looking film, visually speaking.

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44 'Titus' (1999)

Directed by Julie Taymor

When looking over the various films based on Shakespeare's plays, plenty of usual suspects will emerge. For example, there are plenty of takes on Romeo and Juliet, various ones on Hamlet, and, some would say, perhaps too many versions of Macbeth. Yet Titus Andronicus is one Shakespeare play that doesn’t get adapted too often, perhaps because it’s very bold, violent, and a little hard to swallow at times, even by the standards of a tragic play.

The play follows a complex cycle of violence stemming from the titular character (played by Anthony Hopkins) once killing the son of a queen turned slave, leading to her vowing revenge which, in turn, sets off more acts of violence and vengeance. It’s bold and over-the-top and captured with a genuinely unique style, courtesy of director Julie Taymor firing on cylinders, refusing to shy away from much, and more or less going for broke. It’s a wild and strange film, but it’s also utterly absorbing, and might well be the most underrated film adaptation of a Shakespearean play.

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43 'Underground' (1995)

Directed by Emir Kusturica

A very long war movie that reaches almost three hours in length for its theatrical cut, and exceeds five hours in its extended cut, Underground is the sort of movie where any words will fail to explain it, either narratively or in terms of its quality. It’s a huge and ambitious achievement of filmmaking, broadly – very broadly – being about the history of Yugoslavia and the various 20th-century wars that affected it, notably World War II, the Cold War, and then the Yugoslav Wars.

The last of those conflicts took place in the 1990s, meaning Underground covers the span of about 50 years, and is mostly centered on the tumultuous lives of two friends who are trying to get by during this tumultuous time in the nation’s history. At times, Underground is surreal, sometimes it’s soul-crushing, and, at other points, it’s surprisingly funny. It is a movie that aims to do a whole lot and mostly pulls it off, feeling entirely unlike anything else out there in the process.

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42 'The Iron Giant' (1999)

Directed by Brad Bird

While it wasn’t as successful upon release, time has been kind to The Iron Giant, and it’s now rightly recognized as one of the best animated movies of the 1990s. It takes place in a small town during the 1950s and has a premise that sees a young boy making an unlikely friend in the form of a giant robot, with both ultimately growing and finding themselves able to teach the other certain things about life.

The Iron Giant is a movie with an undeniably good heart, and it pulls off some genuinely emotional moments without ever feeling overly sentimental or too childlike. It’s a movie that will likely appeal to most younger viewers, but it’s also just as likely to hit the spot for adults, too, with that same quality also carrying over to some of the great films Brad Bird directed for Pixar in the 2000s (The Incredibles and Ratatouille).

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41 'August in the Water' (1995)

Directed by Gakuryu Ishii

August in the Water isn’t super well-known overall, but the underrated film has amassed a following on Letterboxd, and, watching the movie, it’s easy to see why it’s so highly rated there. It takes a science fiction premise that might sound familiar and does some interesting things with it stylistically, following a city that’s rocked by a series of strange occurrences, with a young girl, in particular, finding her life impacted by unusual – and possibly extraterrestrial – phenomena.

It's a little fantastical, somewhat sci-fi, but also unexpectedly grounded, working as a coming-of-age movie with its focus on younger characters forced to not only find their place in the world, but perhaps their place within something beyond the world, too. August in the Water takes lofty ideas and presents them in unique ways, making for a mysterious yet engrossing film that’s definitely one of the more underrated of the ‘90s.

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40 'Magnolia' (1999)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

A heavy-going epic (of sorts) that has one of the most mind-blowingly good casts of any 1990s movie, Magnolia is sprawling, ambitious to a fault, and unapologetically intense with the emotions it explores almost to the point of melodrama. It takes place over a short amount of time, but successfully fills up its 3+ hour runtime by having numerous characters it constantly switches between and covers.

Everyone’s tied together by the fact they all live in the same region of California, they’re all going through some stuff (to put it mildly), and they all experience a very strange event that upends everything towards the film’s end. Magnolia is wild and untamed in how much it aims to do, and how big it allows its various cast members to go, but the resulting film is undeniably absorbing and, at times, very powerful.

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39 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs is a blast of a post-modern crime movie and a heist film that’s far more concerned with the aftermath of a botched one than it is showing any kind of action-packed robbery scene. It unfolds in non-chronological order, and primarily follows the survivors of the aforementioned heist gone wrong as they regroup, suspecting fairly early on that someone in their ranks had ulterior motives.

The level of violence in Reservoir Dogs was shocking for its time and still holds up as something that has the potential to alarm modern-day viewers. It’s telling that the most unpleasant scene is mostly off-screen, though, which is a testament to the impact it has; it’s one scene where you feel much more than you see, but the feeling is palpable. Similarly, it’s amazing how exciting and intriguing Reservoir Dogs as a whole can be while keeping its big action set piece just out of focus.

38 'Until the End of the World' (1991)

Directed by Wim Wenders

One of the most prescient and surprisingly forward-thinking sci-fi movies of all time, Until the End of the World is a highlight within the remarkable and distinctive filmography of Wim Wenders. Wenders specializes in making road movies, and with this film, he took that whole genre to the next level, with the runtime being almost five hours and the characters traveling across the world, rather than across a state or a single country, as is shown in more standard road movies.

Beautifully shot and remarkable in scope, Until the End of the World is also worth experiencing for just how great the soundtrack is, with original songs contributed by artists like Depeche Mode, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Lou Reed. Everything adds up to an experience that no other film quite provides, making Until the End of the World well worth devoting almost five hours of your time to.

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37 'The Crying Game' (1992)

Directed by Neil Jordan

Best known for its game-changing plot twist, but also a film that provides so much more than just that, The Crying Game is one of the best thrillers of its decade. The plot revolves around an IRA member forming a bond with a captured British soldier, showing the consequences of this unlikely friendship and further complications that ensue when the IRA member makes good on a promise he made to the soldier.

Even though The Crying Game is more than three decades old and its story is well known, it still feels best to describe it as vaguely as possible. There’s an argument to be made that some aspects of the film feel a little dated, and it would certainly play out differently if made today. But, for its time, it was quite radical in several ways, and beyond the story and themes, The Crying Game is also just very entertaining/intriguing, and extremely well put together from a technical perspective.

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36 'The Crow' (1994)

Directed by Alex Proyas

A stylish, violent, and dark fantasy movie like no other, The Crow takes a fairly standard revenge story but takes it in an interesting direction, principally thanks to the way it really does look and feel like a comic book brought to life. There’s also the fact that the protagonist, who’s out for revenge, has himself been brought back from the dead, targeting those responsible for killing both him and his fiancée.

Few movies scream the 1990s quite like The Crow, but it doesn’t feel dated in a bad way, instead being so unapologetic and in-your-face stylistically that it’s hard not to feel won over by the presentation. The world of The Crow is a unique one, the soundtrack is consistently great, and it was also a great showcase for Brandon Lee who, like his father, passed away tragically before he could achieve even greater stardom.

35 'Boyz n the Hood' (1991)

Directed by John Singleton

A classic movie set in South Central Los Angeles, Boyz n the Hood is a social drama, a coming-of-age movie, and a crime film all in one. It follows several young men who are all trying to get by in an area where gang-related violence can feel like an everyday occurrence and breaking away from such a life is easier said than done.

It's an overall empathetic and emotionally resonant film, and despite its age, it still packs a punch and feels largely timeless. It's something of a downbeat watch, but it's powerful and engaging on a gut level, and is the sort of early '90s classic that everyone should watch at least once in their lives.

34 'The Lion King' (1994)

Directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers

Standing out as one of 1994's best movies (and there were a ton of great ones that year), The Lion King is about as classic as animated Disney movies get. It spans multiple genres and is tremendously emotional, with its coming-of-age story resonating with viewers young and old for close to 30 years now.

The music's catchy, the visuals are bold and colorful, and the characters are some of the most memorable from any Disney movie. Like many other classics from the 90s, The Lion King really doesn't feel like it's aged at all, and more than earns its reputation as a classic.

33 'La Haine' (1995)

Directed by Mathieu Kassovits

La Haine is a critically acclaimed French film that's particularly beloved on Letterboxd, where it sits as the highest-rated film of 1995 on the site, and within the top 20 highest-rated movies of all time. It tackles disaffected youth and police brutality, being about three friends who anxiously await news regarding another friend of theirs who was seriously injured by police.

It's particularly tense and grounded and memorably presented in stark black-and-white, giving the film an additional grimy/downbeat feel. It's one that's clearly struck many viewers deeply, and it will likely continue to do so because despite its age, much of what La Haine has to say still rings true and feels relevant.

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32 'Being John Malkovich' (1999)

Directed by Spike Jonze

Perhaps the 1990s saved one of its strangest movies for the very end of the decade, but in all honesty, Being John Malkovich would be unusual by the standards of any decade. It screams post-modernism more than just about any other iconic movie out there, having an out-there premise that involves a portal that lets people be transported into the head of the titular actor John Malkovich.

It's funny, unsettling, and upsetting all at once, balancing a strange narrative and various tonal shifts all with surprising grace and confidence. Charlie Kaufman's script here is one of his very best, Spike Jonze's direction is similarly strong, and the performances across the board - including those from John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, and Malkovich himself - are stellar.

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31 'The Thin Red Line' (1998)

Directed by Terrence Malick

After disappearing from the film industry for 20 years, the legendary and enigmatic Terrence Malick returned to cinema in 1998, making his third film - and one of Malick's most approachable - The Thin Red Line. It's an epic-length World War II movie that takes place in the Pacific theater and has one of the most impressive casts ever assembled for an American movie.

That cast includes Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jim Caviezel, John C. Reilly, Adrien Brody, Woody Harrelson, George Clooney, and John Travolta, some of whom only show up for a scene or two. It takes a uniquely philosophical look at war and human nature, feeling equal parts beautiful and nightmarish, and standing to this day as one of the most emotional World War II films of all time.

30 'L.A. Confidential' (1997)

Directed by Curtis Hanson

Standing as an iconic example of neo-noir, L.A. Confidential is a compelling crime/mystery movie that's expertly written and features a great cast. The plot sees several detectives all trying to get to the bottom of a brutal mass murder at a late-night diner, committed by someone armed with a shotgun.

It oozes with style and benefits from very convincingly recreating Los Angeles in the 1950s for its setting, as well as for being one of the greatest things Curtis Hanson ever directed. While the plot sounds straightforward on the surface, it's the way it unfolds (and gets increasingly complex) that keeps things riveting, and it also helps that, at a point, the story and its progression both become rather unpredictable.

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29 'Scream' (1996)

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Some movies walk a fine line between playing certain tropes straight while parodying others, with the original Scream from 1996 being a great example of a film that does this for the horror genre. A familiar slasher premise is taken somewhat seriously, but also discussed and satirized, mainly thanks to the characters being aware of the "rules" found within horror movies.

It's the kind of approach that could seem mean-spirited or condescending in the wrong hands, but thankfully filmmaker Wes Craven had the right hands for a movie like this. He takes what he did in 1994's New Nightmare and refines/perfects the formula, making Scream one of the most essential horror movies of its decade.

28 'Trainspotting' (1996)

Directed by Danny Boyle

There were plenty of gritty and down-to-earth movies released during the 1990s, but few proved to be quite as gritty and down-to-earth as Trainspotting. It's a film set in Scotland, following a group of young people in the Edinburgh drug scene, honestly depicting the (literal) highs and crushing lows of drug addiction.

Trainspotting can be funny in one scene, tense the next scene, terrifying minutes later, and then crushingly sad shortly after. It shows the chaos of the characters' lives in a compelling and remarkably balanced way, never shying away from the reality of such a lifestyle; both the good and the bad. It also had a surprisingly good sequel in 2017 that's equally worth checking out.

27 'Thelma & Louise' (1991)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Even if you know about its famous ending, Thelma & Louise is still a trip worth taking, seeing as it's ultimately about the journey just as much as the destination. It's one of the greatest road movies of all time, following two women who go on the run after one kills a man in self-defense, leading the two to bond while the law tries to track them down.

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are both great as the title characters, and the film boasts a strong supporting cast that includes Harvey Keitel and (a very young) Brad Pitt. It's expertly written and well-directed by the often reliable Ridley Scott, still proving entertaining and emotional to watch all these years later.

26 'Chungking Express' (1994)

Directed by Wong Kar-wai

Is there a concrete plot to Chungking Express? It's kind of hard to say. You could argue that there are two stories at play here, with one quite abruptly taking over the other at about the halfway point.

Maybe the better question would be "Does Chungking Express need a plot?", seeing as it's a Wong Kar-wai movie one comes away from not knowing how to summarize, but being well aware that they've experienced something great. From its dreamy visuals to its great usage of music to its surprisingly hard-hitting emotional content, it's a crime/romance/dramedy movie that tackles themes of loneliness, longing, and belonging better than just about any other and is deservedly regarded as a classic.

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