Our movie podcast recommendation of the week is the perfect pod when you’re looking for a film on the shorter side.
Sometimes when you eat a meal, you don’t want a gut-busting plate full, you just want a light bite. With most Hollywood blockbusters averaging at least two hours and change, your weekend film fest can often end up being the cinematic equivalent of an unlimited buffet. If it’s a post-work chill out, often you just want a more concise film to satisfy your cinematic desires and finding those sub-90 minute gems is surprisingly difficult.
Luckily, not only is there a podcast that purely focuses on films 90 minutes long or less, it’s also rather terrific too. It’s the 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest.
Hosted by Sam Clements, who also produces The Love Of Cinema podcast for Picturehouse Cinemas, 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest is produced by Sam and his wife Louise Owen, who also edits each episode. It truly is a labour of love for this husband and wife team, who are ably assisted by sound mixer Luke Smith.
Working in cinema means that Sam is all too aware of the limitations of long film screenings. He set his heart on hosting a podcast where you could have a more in-depth discussion and also focus on films less than 90 minutes; that magic hour-and-a-half seemingly appearing to be lacking in most modern Hollywood output.
Sam devised the idea of a fictional podcast film festival where anything would be accepted, the only caveat being it must be 90 minutes or under. 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest debuted in September 2018 and has been going from strength to strength, promoting and championing films other podcasts often don’t.
When you investigate the episodic content of 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest, you’ll be surprised at the sheer brilliance of the films featured that are an hour and a half or under (and Sam is very strict on 90 minutes or under. A 91-minute feature? Not allowed!). Sam believes 90 minutes is the sweet spot of runtimes – not too long, not too short and leaves the viewer wanting more. It certainly makes you think on bloated blockbusters and whether some of the fat could have been trimmed.
90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest has also had some fantastic guests over the last fifty or so episodes, including Edith Bowman, Tuppence Middleton, Michael Leader and Joe Cornish, who features in the recommended episode. Sam is a wonderful, inviting and gracious host, and really lets his guest and their choice of film shine. Episodes are structured as if the guest is presenting the film for presentation in a real festival, and offered the chance to describe the special way they’d present it on the night.
90 Minutes or Less Film Fest really does prove that it’s not the size that counts, it’s how you use it.
Recommended episode: Episode 17: Evil Dead II with special guest Joe Cornish (26 July 2019) – http://bit.ly/90minevildead
90 Minutes or Less Film Fest can be found at https://www.90minfilmfest.com/
And followed at:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/90minfilmfest
Instagram – https://twitter.com/90minfilmfest
All available episodes of 90 Minute or Less Film Fest can be downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
—
Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.
