Listen—they just made better movies in the ’90s. While today’s cinema listings are crammed with sequels and remakes, with the watching experience couched in discourse and then discourse about the discourse, the best ’90s films were for the most part true originals. To add to that, a good film resulted in a long relationship with it. Rather than watching something once, plugging in a pithy Letterboxd review, and forgetting about it within a week, ’90s films existed on love-worn VHS tapes to be watched on repeat until the outfits and most quotable one-liners remained stamped onto the brain forever.
While I’m not going to list every single ’90s movie worth watching—that would take an age; British Vogue has a separate list for ’90s films for fashion lovers—there are definitely a few stand-out classics worth returning to. Below, the best ’90s movies to watch (or rewatch) for some much-needed escapism and entertainment.
Wild at Heart (1990)
What happens when you bring two weirdos together and have them star in a David Lynch film? Watch Wild at Heart to find out. The film follows lovers Lula Fortune (Laura Dern) and Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage), who are separated after Sailor is jailed for killing a man who attacked him with a knife. Two years later, Lula picks him up, hands him his snakeskin jacket, and takes him to see the thrash metal band Powermad. As this is a Lynch film, explaining the rest of the plot would be a pointless exercise, but expect plentiful violence, stylish surrealism, and a road movie that’ll shock and delight in equal measure.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Long before the era of Ozempic, facelifts at 35, and billionaires fixated on becoming centenarians, 1992’s Death Becomes Her offered a darkly hilarious and sublimely camp vision of two dueling rivals, Madeline and Helen—played by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn—who drink a magic potion that promises eternal youth. Cue some of the most absurd fight scenes of all time. “That was totally uncalled for,” purrs Helen after Madeline blasts an enormous hole in her stomach. “Some advice,” Madeline purrs back. “I would stay out of a bathing suit for a while.”
True Romance (1993)
The ’90s were a great time for off-beat thrillers involving couples in which one (or both) were stylish criminals (see also: Natural Born Killers, Buffalo ’66, Wild at Heart). Enter: True Romance, starring Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as young lovers who find themselves on the run after the former kills the latter’s pimp and accidentally makes off with $5 million worth of stolen cocaine. Like all of the best ’90s movies, Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino’s crime caper was initially a box-office flop but has since become an enduring classic—not least because of its landmark style (all leopard faux-fur coats, Hawaiian shirts, and slouchy jeans).
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Meet Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), two unhinged, stunningly dressed, and actually very evil outlaws who storm across the country on a maniacal crime spree. How much you love Natural Born Killers will depend on your personal threshold for both gore and silliness (it’s one of my all-time favorites). Either way, you’ll surely find yourself wanting to get your hands on a dusty red 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible and go on a road trip—ideally minus all the murder.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The only feasible reason to have never before seen Quentin Tarantino’s stylish crime flick Pulp Fiction is that you’re sick of everyone saying it’s the best film ever, and are therefore avoiding it in protest. Or maybe you just haven’t gotten around to it (like me and The Sopranos). Well, I’m sorry to sound like your ex-boyfriend, but it really is one of the best. It has an impeccable script. Timeless costuming. Top-tier acting. And a bob that has inspired women the world over to take printed-out pictures of Uma Thurman into hairdressers for the best part of three decades.
Serial Mom (1994)
Die-hard John Waters fans will tell you to watch his ’70s “trash trilogy” (Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble). Those who dabble will tell you to watch his campy breakout hits (Hairspray, Cry-Baby). But real heads know that Serial Mom—starring Kathleen Turner as an insane suburban housewife who murders people after every minor inconvenience and annoyance—is where it’s at. Even Waters himself has described it as one his best movies—as well as being the one that brought his pitch-black comedy to the mainstream. “It was the end of my Hollywood career,” he said, “and then I went back to independent films.”
Before Sunrise (1995)
Don’t you think Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise looks a lot like Cruz Beckham? Anyway, in the first installment of Richard Linklater’s widely beloved Before trilogy (followed by Before Sunset in 2004 and Before Midnight in 2013), Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) meet on a train and get off in Vienna, on a whim, to spend the next 24 hours together: visiting landmarks, roaming city streets, perusing record stores and fair grounds, all the while gradually building an undeniable connection. Meandering, meditative, and romantic in that easy way that so many ’90s films managed to be, Before Sunrise will make you want to throw caution to the wind and see where the night takes you.
Fallen Angels (1995)
Chungking Express was the film that put Wong Kar-wai on the map, and fashion lovers will cite In the Mood for Love as his tour de force, but real heads know that Fallen Angels is where it’s at. Originally intended as the third story in Chungking Express, Kar-wai decided to make it an entirely separate film, and thank goodness he did. Shot primarily at night, Fallen Angels is all neon cityscapes, midnight noodle cafes, and delirious wide-angle shots, all tied together with a frantic trip-hop soundtrack. Placing mood and atmosphere above narrative structure, Fallen Angels is the type of film you’ll love without being able to explain exactly why.
Hackers (1995)
Look, you don’t watch Hackers—starring a 20-year-old Angelina Jolie and a 23-year-old Jonny Lee Miller—for the plot (something about a group of high school computer protégées being framed for a corporate embezzlement scheme and having to clear their name?). You watch it for the cyber-punk style (all archival Vivienne Westwood and ’70s motocross jackets); weird, choppy hacker hair; and incredibly throwback vision of the internet (mostly involving floppy disks and lots of fluorescent text). This is a vibes-first film, through and through—and that’s a compliment.
Toy Story (1995)
An animated film? One of the best releases of the ’90s? Absolutely. The original Toy Story—about a group of sentient playthings—deftly addresses all manner of big themes: the jealousy and admiration woven through the complex fabric of friendship, the bittersweet loss of growing up, the existential horror of realizing you are not who you thought you’d be. This Pixar classic gave millennials everywhere a Pavlovian response to the opening number, Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”—a song to cure all ills.
Scream (1996)
Scream—the first one; there are now seven—is a cult teen slasher that’ll win over even those who aren’t usually into that sort of thing. The ensemble cast is unmatched—Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich—each of whom brings their unique brand of charisma and acting chops to elevate this far beyond your standard horror fare. Oh, and the twist at the end will come as a shock if you’ve somehow managed to avoid spoilers for three decades. But beware: you won’t want to be alone at home ever again.
Trainspotting (1996)
Trainspotting is the one film whose soundtrack I listen to regularly, as if it’s an album. (You know I’m amid a personal crisis when I turn up “Sing” by Blur.) Plot-wise, Danny Boyle’s masterpiece is bleak as hell: the film follows a group of heroin addicts in an economically deprived area of Edinburgh as they navigate unemployment, relapses, illness, and death. It’s much more than a social-realist portrait, though—with its trippy sequences, wry sense of humor, and colorful characters you’ll end up rooting for, Trainspotting sucks you into its vortex before spitting you out.
Run Lola Run (1998)
There’s so much to love about Run Lola Run, the cult German thriller that’ll get your heart racing as much as if it were actually you doing the running: the thumping techno soundtrack, Lola’s (Franka Potente) pillarbox red hair, the borderline sci-fi plot in which Lola has three chances to secure 100,000 marks (around 50 grand) within the space of 20 minutes so that her boyfriend doesn’t get killed by a mob boss. With a runtime of just 80 minutes, Run Lola Run is a throw-it-back shot of a film and, much like a bad dream, you’ll finish it feeling thankful that it’s not you in that predicament (in a good way).
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
No list of best ’90s movies is complete without a rom-com, and one of the most timeless of the bunch is 10 Things I Hate About You, a deliciously fun, modern reimagining of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew starring a baby-faced Heath Ledger and an even more baby-faced Julia Stiles (she was 17 when they filmed it). The styling of the film is very of the time, in the best way: chunky flip-flops, colorful crocheting, knee-high suede lace-ups, Doc Martens Mary Janes, butterfly baby tees, and—gasp—Skechers. But it’s the timeless plot that elevates this from enjoyable to cult classic.
Cruel Intentions (1999)
A cult classic like no other, Cruel Intentions is about two villainous Upper East Side step-siblings—Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar)—who make a bet with each other that the former must deflower their headmaster’s daughter (Reese Witherspoon) before the end of the year. None of that really matters, though. What matters is all the sleek ’90s Gucci, Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, and Prada—just your regular high school wardrobe! Fun fact: Phillippe modeled for Prada at the time, meaning he got some of his clothes for free.
Fight Club (1999)
For a long time I avoided David Fincher’s Fight Club because I thought it was just a bro film guys were obsessed with (men punching each other in a basement, you say?). But, errr, turns out it’s a cult favorite for a reason. Starring an incredibly cut Brad Pitt in an array of kitsch ’70s charity shop finds and Edward Norton as a discontented corporate office worker, Fight Club is a classic Gen X film, in that it asks: what if there’s more to life than all this? Side note: you can buy the famous Fight Club soap online, though sadly it’s not made from human fat stolen from liposuction clinics like in the film.
Human Traffic (1999)
Starring a baby-faced Danny Dyer in his breakout role (he was 22 at the time, though he looks about five years younger), Human Traffic is about as ’90s as it comes. Directed by a then-25-year-old Justin Kerrigan, this very British film follows a group of friends in Cardiff as they plan, partake in, and come down from a big weekend partying and popping pills. It’s fun and totally left-field: lots of weird camera angles, trippy asides, and fast-paced spoken narration (a style plenty of films would try to copy around the same era). Mainly, though, it’ll make you wish it was a different decade, back when people used to dance for 48 hours and complain about corporate life.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
And at the absolute other end of the spectrum we have Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, a pastel-tainted fever dream about girlhood, depression, and the darkness lurking behind a sleepy suburban neighborhood in the ’70s. It’s a film that became so much more than that, inspiring a visual language and tone that we still see echoes of in cinema, fashion, and literature more than 25 years later. “I’d never written a script, but I thought I’d try the first chapter because it was so vivid, visually, in my head,” Coppola told Vogue on the film’s 20th anniversary. “It was just a private project I’d do at night for fun.”