Movies: They’re too friggin’ long these days. Whether it’s a new blockbuster film in theatres demanding two and a half hours or more of your time, or a new streaming prestige piece from a notable auteur that reaches peaks of four hours, every contemporary filmmaker seems to have agreed that longer is better. How and why did this trend happen? Why do directors wish to test our patience -- and bladders -- so intensely? What happened to the particular pleasures of a tightly-paced film that gets in, says what it needs to say, and gets out? Who has the time to watch these long-ass movies all day?
If you, like me, love spending your leisure time with a good movie, but don’t have a ton of leisure time to spare, I’ve got your back with a list of some of the best movies available to stream right now -- that happen to be 90 minutes or less. These flicks are proof that you can do a lot with a little, and are the perfect entertainment choice for those whose schedules are crammed enough as is. Here are the best 90 minutes or less movies you can stream right now. Because we all wanna watch a good movie -- but who has the time?
I Lost My Body
Streaming on: Netflix
Length: 81 minutes
Director: Jérémy Clapin
Writers: Jérémy Clapin, Guillaume Laurant
Cast: Hakim Faris, Victoire du Bois, Patrick d'Assumçao
Remember the Devon Sawa/Seth Green/Jessica Alba cult-horror-comedy Idle Hands? Ever wish it was reimagined as a tight, French animated film aching with equal parts style and pathos? Your very specific wishes have been granted in the form of I Lost My Body, a beautiful Netflix-acquired Cannes sensation. Naoufel is a young man whose parents died in a car accident. Since then, he’s lived a life of unfulfilled potential and quiet ennui -- oh, and also his severed hand is alive and trying to reconnect itself to its owner. I Lost My Body is a peculiar mix of tones, stories, and moods, combining the visual splendor and scale of classic animated adventures with the philosophical discussions and quiet self-actualizations you might find in a live-action indie drama. If you’re a fan of the idiosyncratic French animated works of Sylvain Chomet -- your The Triplets of Bellevilles, your The Illusionists -- I Lost My Body might scratch that particular itch for you, while fostering its own, wholly unique identity for a new filmmaker to watch, Jérémy Clapin.
Paris Is Burning
Streaming on: Netflix
Length: 78 minutes
Director: Jennie Livingston
Cast: Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, Willi Ninja, Angie Xtravaganza, Sol Pendavis, Freddie Pendavis, Junior Labeija, Paris Dupree
Made in 1990, Paris Is Burning is a key piece of viewing not just for its importance within the LGBTQ+ cinema canon, but for its remarkable examination of such a vital piece of human history that will educate any viewer. The documentary, from filmmaker Jennie Livingston, follows drag performers in the New York ball scene. If you’ve ever watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, used words like “shade” casually, or vogued on a dance floor, you owe it to yourself to educate yourself on the context of these now-ubiquitous cultural mainstays. All of these and more come from these eternally underappreciated LGBTQ+ performers of color, and watching them perform with each other, dissect each other’s work, and celebrate the hell out of each other is thrilling and invigorating. The film also delves into the multiple tragedies so monstrously inherent in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s LGBTQ+ experience, from the AIDS crisis to the demonization of sex work to the swift reactions from homophobic families. Paris Is Burning, for all its 78 quick minutes, is a work of remarkable complexities, joys, despairs, and howls for acceptance.
Locke
Streaming on: Netflix, Kanopy
Length: 85 minutes
Director/Writer: Steven Knight
Cast: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland, Bill Milner
Locke is a one-man show -- kind of. You only ever see Tom Hardy in the film, as the title role, a construction worker with all kinds of complicated problems. But he speaks to a litany of folks over the phone, played by well-known British performers like Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott, and Tom Holland. These conversations all guide us through the utterly human foibles and concerns of Locke, a man attempting to do the right thing in reaction to doing what might objectively be considered “the wrong thing.” Or is it? Writer/director Steven Knight lays it all out on the line in this fascinating drama, never once cutting away from Locke’s car or from his star, the eminently watchable Hardy. And while real-time closed-room thriller narratives are often used in genre affairs (i.e. Saw, Cube, Buried), the domain of Locke’s drama stays wholly in the real world. If you’re concerned with cinema’s lack of interest in small, human stories, Locke is the perfectly streamable antidote.
Frances Ha
Streaming on: Netflix, The Criterion Channel
Length: 86 minutes
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writers: Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen
Yes, Marriage Story is a very good Noah Baumbach film available for streaming on Netflix. But, it’s also very depressing. And, kinda long, at 2 hours and 16 minutes. What if you want a slice of Baumbach that’s lighter, tighter, and full of that Greta Gerwig spirit? Allow me to introduce you to Frances Ha, a bustling and fluffy (in the best sense of the term) dramedy rendered in glorious black and white. Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women) co-wrote the film with Baumbach, her husband, and she adds a lot of welcome optimism to his often misanthropic worldview. She plays the titular Frances, a struggling dancer who does her best to keep floating through life when life keeps throwing her curveballs. If you’re not into “New York stories of white people just trying to get by,” Frances Ha might miss you. But if you’re into “good New York stories of white people just trying to get by,” or are at least open-minded to one being good, you will find much to enjoy about Frances Ha, a film with simpler, lovelier charms than its acid-tongued brethren.
Creep 2
Streaming on: Netflix
Length: 80 minutes
Director: Patrick Brice
Writers: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice
Cast: Mark Duplass, Desiree Akhavan, Karan Soni
The original Creep, also under 90 minutes, also available on Netflix, is a skin-crawlingly icky found footage horror-comedy about the perils of masculinity, obsession, and storytelling. It is well worth your time. And yet, it’s bested handily by its sequel, a true horror masterpiece for the 21st century. Mark Duplass returns as our identity-hopping serial killer, keen on documenting his crimes as a kind of voyeuristic look into the soul masquerading as an attempt at fostering friendship (the murder portrayed in the cold open is… harrowing). But this time, he’s paired with Desiree Akhavan, the fiercely talented filmmaker/actor who plays a fiercely talented filmmaker interested in documenting odd folks with odd requests. And when Creep 2 locks into its two-handed structure, unsettling sparks fly and ricochet. Duplass and Akhavan are perfect sparring partners, generating the film’s queasy moments of suspense, humor, and even genuine connection. Like many of the best pieces of 21st century horror, Creep 2 sneakily has a lot to say about our modern foibles -- all while scaring the ever-living stuffing out of you.
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
Streaming on: Netflix, Hoopla
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Eli Craig
Writers: Eli Craig, Morgan Jurgenson
Cast: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss
Joining the Mount Rushmore of “Meta Horror-Comedies That Somehow Manage to Scare Us, Make Us Laugh, Criticize Horror Tropes, and Celebrate Those Same Horror Tropes,” Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil is a raucous burst of energy, laughs, scares, and some genuine dang pathos. If Scream represents this specific sub-genre leaning more toward “horror” and The Cabin in the Woods lies in the middle of the equilibrium, Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil balances the whole equation with its comedy-first approach. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine play the titular characters, a pair of good-natured hillbillies who are just trying to help a group of camping college students get by on their camping trip. But wouldn’t you know it -- everything they do keeps getting misconstrued as the work of vicious killers! This film is catnip for horror-heads, pleasurably dissecting what makes a horror film tick with joie de vivre. But it ain’t just a cerebral exercise in comedy -- Eli Craig’s film works time and time again because of its surprising focus on emotion, desire, and love.
Searching for Sugar Man
Streaming on: Netflix
Length: 86 minutes
Director/Writer: Malik Bendjelloul
Cast: Sixto Rodriguez
If you’re a documentary fiend searching for your next Netflix fix, this one will push all your buttons. Searching for Sugar Man follows the fascinating journey to find Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit-born musician who somehow became a South African multi-platinum musical legend. Rumors were abound that he had died, but two fans (Stephen "Sugar" Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom) weren’t so sure. So director Malik Bendjelloul filmed their journey to find him, and the results are absolutely astonishing. Sometimes feeling like a suspense thriller, sometimes feeling like a joyous exaltation of music, sometimes feeling like a melancholy rumination of life, Searching for Sugar Man proves that damn cliche that the truth is stranger than fiction -- and often way more compelling. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar -- give it a watch and you will see why. And you might find your new favorite artist, too.
Hot Rod
Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crackle
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Writer: Pam Brady
Cast: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher, Ian McShane
If you’ve liked any piece of comedy in the last fifteen years, you have The Lonely Island to thank. The trio of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone have produced pieces of silly, high-energy, media-saturated comedy that shaped and guided everything in its wake -- especially with their Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts that burned up the views on a nascent YouTube. And when they were first tapped to take their considerable skills to the big screen, the result was Hot Rod, a highly idiosyncratic work of bizarre confidence that sadly fizzled at the box office upon its first release. Since then, it’s been reappraised and rightly celebrated as a beautiful cult object, a work of comic bonkersness that’s both the trio’s most experimental and right-down-the-middle work. The main narrative is simple -- a manchild daredevil (Samberg) must raise money for his stepfather’s (Ian McShane, of course) heart operation by pulling off a large stunt. Better for the trio to hang all kinds of flights of fancy on top of, from a “falling through the forest” sequence that pummels the gut with its length, to the true surreal bliss of “Cool beans.” Hot Rod is the perfect hangout film, a slice of comic purity that feels like it was made just for you.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Hulu
Length: 85 minutes
Director: David Zucker
Writers: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft
Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalbán, George Kennedy, O. J. Simpson
Oftentimes, the best comedy performers behave unaware they’re in a comedy. They react to the most absurd situations with deadpan commitment -- a serious lighthouse in a silly sea. This formula for comic excellence ensured that Leslie Nielsen, known in the front half of his career for deadly serious roles, would succeed with aplomb in Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker’s 1980 masterpiece Airplane! He played the supporting role of a doctor, committing with no wink to every act of lunacy, nailing it so perfectly that the ZAZ team gave him his own show: Police Squad!, a cult spoof that went after early police procedurals. Nielsen reprised the role of Lieutenant Frank Drebin in 1988’s feature adaptation The Naked Gun -- and the rest is history. Nielsen is now forever known as a comedy mastermind -- all because he never knew he was in a comedy. In modern eyes, The Naked Gun is almost transgressive in its sheer silliness, bolstering its more-than-competent genre plot with immaculately crafted capital-J Jokes. Much of the 21st century’s film comedies rely on innate charms, loose runs of improvisation, and lived-in ironic detachment. The Naked Gun continues to destroy because it dares to be well-made.
The Sound of Silence
Streaming on: Hulu
Length: 85 minutes
Director: Michael Tyburski
Writers: Ben Nabors, Michael Tyburski
Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Rashida Jones, Tony Revolori, Austin Pendleton
If you didn’t see The Sound of Silence, a devastatingly quiet (pun mildly intended) indie from 2019, rectify that immediately. First-time feature filmmaker Michael Tyburski gives us exactly what we desire from a first-time feature filmmaker: A distinctive voice. You’ve never seen anything quite like The Sound of Silence, even if it’s populated with familiar faces like Peter Sarsgaard, Rashida Jones, Tony Revolori, and Alex Karpovsky, and is somewhat in dialogue with other unique pieces of independent cinema (it’s like Spike Jonze and Joe Swanberg had a baby edited by Joe Pera?). Sarsgaard plays a “house tuner,” a man who visits homes to fine-tune their sonic discrepancies in order to rid their inhabitants of pesky issues with depression, anxiety, and the like. Sarsgaard believes that such small noises as a refrigerator hum or a floorboard squeak are more responsible for our mental health than we think, and he has a litany of curious tools and methods to diagnose such offending noises. When he visits the home of a woman played by Jones, everything changes -- though to hint at more would deny you one of 2019’s most lovely, low key, weirder indie pleasures.
A Quiet Place
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Hulu
Length: 90 minutes
Director: John Krasinski
Writers: Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, John Krasinski
Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
My man John Krasinski really did that. Nobody was clamoring for The Office star, known as a director for talky indie dramedies, to deliver a pure piece of popcorn-horror-adventure told largely in silence. But he did that for us. A Quiet Place tells the tale of a future apocalyptic world devastated by monsters attracted to noise, and the one family who had no choice but to keep everything together. Krasinski plays the family’s patriarch, but it’s Emily Blunt, Krasinski’s on-and-offscreen wife, who centers the picture. Blunt has always been an incredible force of nature in genre pictures like Looper and Edge of Tomorrow -- here, her work transcends even her previous lofts. Plus, the onscreen children, Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds, will squeeze your heart to a bloody pulp. Their work radiates with sterling complexity and empathy, particularly from Simmonds, a deaf actor who IRL worked with Krasinski to better achieve realism for the film’s many non-verbal and ASL moments. Plus, beyond all this stuff, A Quiet Place is scary as hell, its set pieces surprising and terrifying effortlessly. Krasinski really did not need to combine the best of Spielberg and Shyamalan into a 90 minute masterpiece -- but he really did do that.
Chicken Run
Streaming on: Hulu
Length: 84 minutes
Directors: Peter Lord, Nick Park
Writers: Karey Kirkpatrick, Peter Lord, Nick Park
Cast: Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, Julia Sawalha, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, Benjamin Whitrow
Growing up, my family had a full-size van with a small TV/VCR combo installed in the back. My brother and I had a small selection of VHS tapes that we wore the heck out on road trips, big and small. At the top of the pile? Chicken Run, the utterly charming “prison escape flick for kids” from the imaginations that brought us the Wallace & Gromit stop motion short films (not coincidentally another VHS we wore the heck out). Peter Lord, Nick Park, and screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick crafted such a unified, tight, charming, hilarious, poignant, delightful family film, one that still works because of its timeless interaction with classic cinema and storytelling tropes. A group of very British chickens live on a farm where their fate is, well, on your dinner table. They’re not so into the idea of becoming food. And when a very American rooster joins their flock, he just might be their guiding star for how to escape and live a better life. Chicken Run does it all with fleet efficiency, playing its situations for laughs, thrills, and surprisingly dark pathos. And while watching on Hulu will never quite replicate the experience of my family van’s VHS, at least I won’t have to deal with tracking issues.
Tangerine
Streaming on: Hulu, Hoopla
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Mickey O'Hagan, Alla Tumanian, James Ransone
Combining the hangout charms of a Clerks, the go-go-go energy of a Crank: High Voltage, and the iPhone photography of, uh, “modern life,” Tangerine is a special, special film. If you saw Sean Baker’s Willem Dafoe-starring darling The Florida Project and dug it, but perhaps thought it was a little too slowly paced, Tangerine will scratch your itch and thensome. The film follows a day in the life of Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), a trans sex worker just trying to get by in sunny Los Angeles. Baker’s examination of these too-often marginalized groups crackles with empathy, authenticity, and vitality. These folks are not victims of their circumstances, and Baker isn’t interested in making an exploitation of their misery. They’re relentless architects of their own destinies, always on the move, always prepared to simply live. Indie flicks don’t have to slow down to a crawl to make their impact; Baker’s Tangerine is a thrilling reminder of the power of running.
The Stuff
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Hoopla
Length: 87 minutes
Director/Writer: Larry Cohen
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino
If you like your horror with a healthy scoop of wicked satire, The Stuff is gonna be your new stuff. Genre cinema maverick Larry Cohen (It’s Alive) stepped a touch out of his comfort zone on this one, confusing his studio and audiences alike with a black comedy that happened to have elements of gore/horror, rather than the other way around. But like many maligned-at-the-time genre hybrids of the 1980s, The Stuff has done nothing but appreciate in value since its original 1985 release. “The stuff” in question is a strange, creamy substance found bubbling out of the ground. And wouldn’t you know it -- it’s delicious! It’s tastier than other desserts like ice cream! And the best part -- it’s got no calories! Oh, also, it infects every human who consumes it and turns into a visceral brain parasite that turns them into body horror zombies. But still -- delicious! For fans of John Carpenter works like They Live, The Stuff plays similarly in that “blunt consumerist satire/satisfying genre flick” pocket. Just, um, make sure you watch it on an empty stomach.
Stop Making Sense
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Jonathan Demme
Writers: Talking Heads, Jonathan Demme
Cast: Talking Heads
David Byrne steps on stage by himself. Hits play on a tape recorder. And stiffly struts his way through a stripped down acoustic-guitar-and-808 version of one of the Talking Heads’ most well-known hits, “Psycho Killer.” After this striking performance, another band member joins for another song. And then another. And another still. Until, about halfway through the concert film Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads are now taking up the entire stage, a bustling entity of joyful music and bursting creativity. It’s a genius device, a way to ensure every member of the ensemble is allowed to prove their importance. And it’s proof that Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) is one of our greatest auteurs who ever lived, a director marked less by his similar styles and tics, and more by his ability to deliver the best version of anything, including (especially?) a 1980s concert film. Stop Making Sense is one of the most pure films I’ve ever seen, a special celebration of music, of fun, of camaraderie. The tunes in this thing slap so hard, you’ll find it difficult to remain sitting. And, frankly, you shouldn’t. That would stop making sense, ya know?
Cold War
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Paweł Pawlikowski
Writers: Paweł Pawlikowski, Janusz Głowacki, Piotr Borkowski
Cast: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza, Cédric Kahn, Jeanne Balibar
Picture a black and white war film, with a strong love story at its center. It’s probably epic in scope and length, right? Not so much with Cold War, Paweł Pawlikowski’s work of staggering impact, heart, and invention, clocking in at an unreal 88 minutes. Playing somewhat like the artsy European version of La La Land (a sincere compliment!), Cold War follows the story of a music director and his muse, an incredible jazz singer, in post-war Poland. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal renders the resulting love story, in all its bittersweet ebbs and flows, with some of the most striking images you’ll see in a contemporary film. Like the Damien Chazelle-directed film, Cold War radiates with reverence for the old-fashioned days of cinema, art, and love stories, while making sure to complicate and poke at all of these myths with bittersweet reminders of reality. Even as it sits in dialogue with previous works, you’ll never see anything quite like Cold War.
Dolemite
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Kanopy, Fandor
Length: 90 minutes
Director: D'Urville Martin
Writers: Jerry Jones, Rudy Ray Moore
Cast: Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin, Jerry Jones, Lady Reed, Hy Pyke, West Gale, John Kerry, Vainus Rackstraw
In 2019, Netflix released an Eddie Murphy comeback vehicle of sorts: Dolemite Is My Name, a biopic about comedian Rudy Ray Moore’s Herculean attempts to make a low-budget action flick centered around one of his characters. If you saw this movie and loved it, you owe it to yourself to see its subject: Dolemite, a stone-cold blaxploitation classic from 1975. Moore’s performance as Dolemite is both ideologically complicated and intoxicatingly silly. Dolemite is, like many protagonists of blaxploitation cinema, a smooth-talking, smoother-walking pimp. But his particular ways of speaking in rhymes that skirt the lines between profane and enlightening -- coupled with his badass kung-fu skills -- catapult him to “underrated screen icon” status (If you’ve liked a hip-hop act in the past 30 years, they’ve referenced Dolemite in some way). When Dolemite is finally released from prison after getting framed by rival Willie Green (director D’Urville Martin), he embarks on an ass-kicking journey of revenge, assisted by a capable madam of his brothel, Queen Bee (Lady Reed). Some of the film (okay, maybe all of the film) has cringe-inducingly reductive views on gender and racial politics. But these components add not only to the hilarious, entertaining, low-budget charm of the whole affair, but to the extratextual analysis of the film and its interactions with its place in a white-centered film industry.
Down to Earth
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Length: 87 minutes
Directors: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Writers: Chris Rock, Lance Crouther, Ali LeRoi, Louis C.K.
Cast: Chris Rock, Regina King, Mark Addy, Eugene Levy, Frankie Faison, Greg Germann, Jennifer Coolidge, Chazz Palminteri
An underrated, even derided entry in Chris Rock’s film pantheon (with an abysmal 20% on Rotten Tomatoes), 2001’s Down to Earth deserves a contemporary look. It’s got an irresistible premise, based on the classic play Heaven Can Wait: Rock plays a struggling comedian who’s killed in an accident by a semi-truck. Angels in heaven give him a chance to return to earth and redeem himself, with one catch: He’s coming back as an older white man. Thus, Down to Earth sits in a sweet spot of silliness and social satire, its gags and set pieces feeling both delightfully absurd (Chazz Palminteri and Eugene Levy making quite the comedic duo), sharply critical of racism, and anchored by a sweet love story (alongside the always perfect Regina King). The 2000s were, lowkey, a golden age decade for high-budget, high-concept big screen comedies -- Down to Earth is an underseen one that deserves your streaming time.
Millennium Actress
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Kanopy
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Satoshi Kon
Writers: Sadayuki Murai, Satoshi Kon
Cast: Miyoko Shōji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shōzō Iizuka, Shōko Tsuda, Hirotaka Suzuoki, Hisako Kyōda, Kōichi Yamadera, Masane Tsukayama
From the late anime fever dream mastermind Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Paprika), Millennium Actress paints with a broad, startlingly surreal brush in just 87 minutes. Kon and co-writer Sadayuki Murai’s meta-vision of show biz identity explorations plays something like if Charlie Kaufman adapted F for Fake with a complicated female protagonist -- and animated it all with some of the wildest imagery you’ll ever see. Chiyoko Fujiwara is one of Japan’s most acclaimed actresses, nearing the twilight of her life and career. Television interviewer Genya Tachibana decides to produce a piece about her, giving her the opportunity to tell her own story. But as Fujiwara dives into her life, the boundaries between reality and fiction begin to blur, and images from her films careen into actual experiences until the meanings and definitions of both become fundamentally blurred. Kon’s work has long been influential on some of the best and most interesting live-action filmmakers working today -- and if you have 87 minutes to spare, it is well worth your time to return to the source and allow your brain to get melted by such a singular vision.
Coherence
Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sundance Now
Length: 88 minutes
Director: James Ward Byrkit
Writers: James Ward Byrkit, Alex Manugian
Cast: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon
Trust me on this one: Watch Coherence immediately. Don’t read another single word about it. Why are you still here?! Okay, fine: Coherence is a low-budget genre treat, a startling debut from James Ward Byrkit that feels like a film he’s been needing to make his entire life. The original sci-fi flick, feeling like a more accessible Shane Carruth joint, starts with a group of friends at a dinner table, centered by Emily Baldoni as a deaf woman dealing with the kinds of awkward relationship drama a person in their 30s invariably deals with when attending a dinner party. And then, a comet shoots by in the sky. And then… shit gets interesting. Again, I really, sincerely do not want to spoil the pleasures and twists crackling throughout Coherence, a film that both feels like a play in the best way and like a genre exercise in the best way. Just watch the damn thing, will ya? It’s only 88 minutes for criminy’s sake!