21 Movies That Don’t Waste a Second of Screen Time

It’s popular to crap on movies where “nothing” happens, that are all color and texture and symbolic significance, and that’s not fair. Sometimes, “nothing” is the best thing that can happen in a movie. But it’s not hard to tell when a movie had to be padded out or some nervous producer insisted on explaining every last detail in case the audience didn’t “get it.”

“We’ve all watched good movies that we think could have been great if the story was tighter and the filmmaker spent less time on side missions and subplots that led nowhere,” Redditor Phocoena-sinus told r/Movies. “Or maybe on scenes that explained too much things that did not need explanation or maybe things we would have preferred to find out on our own.”

That’s because telling a truly efficient story is tougher than it looks. The urge to meander is so strong, but some movies do manage to resist all temptation. For example, “I was watching the movie Jurassic Park, and we were talking about which of the scenes could have been cut or made shorter in a way that would have improved the film,” they continued. “My friend said none he could think of.” And he was right. If any streamers ever try, there will be rioting. We’ll throw the first brick.

They then asked for more “movies with tight plots that don’t waste time on things that don’t directly advance the story?”