In a recent interview with IndieWire, Alexander Payne, the director of the renowned movie Sideways, has criticized the trend of overly long movies in the industry. He asserted that many films today don't justify their extensive run time. Payne emphasized the importance of the length being as short as possible while retaining the essence of the story.

Payne clarified that he doesn't have an issue with long duration movies per se. Rather, his concern is targeted towards films that don't maintain their pace and feel unnecessarily extended, using examples like The Godfather Part II and Seven Samurai as movies with long runtimes that maintain engagement.

This perspective comes amid recent releases, including Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, both famously pushing the three-hour mark. Notably, Scorsese defended such lengthy films, suggesting that audiences are willing to invest time-consuming endeavors if the content is engaging and commands respect like theater performances.

However, Payne adhered to his belief about telling the story as succinctly as possible. He declared that films should carve out the narrative as concisely as possible at each level, from scriptwriting to editing. He adds, however, that editing should not truncate the narrative prematurely.

Regarding his films, Payne acknowledged that his upcoming project The Holdovers, a coming-of-age comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti, is slightly lopsided towards a longer duration. He expresses that he strives for each of his films to be as concise as possible, but admits that achieving the ideal is challenging.

Finally, Payne divulges that, in his view, his film Election was the only one to get the runtime just right – not a moment too long, underlining a balance that modern films could learn from.