The best new streaming movies from Sully to the Boston Strangler

Wondering what to watch this weekend? Mid-March brings with it many new movies to streaming.

Perhaps the best of these is from an old hat, namely Clint Eastwood and his biographical drama Sully, with Tom Hanks playing the eponymous pilot who safely lands a plane that crashes into the Hudson River. While based on a true story, the true crime thriller Boston Strangler debuts on Disney+.

Social satire slasher and murder mystery Bodies Bodies Bodies, directed by Halina Reijn, lands on NOW and Sky Cinema along with surprise Oscar nominee Leslie also arriving on the service, finally available to watch after controversy surrounding the rather odd word-of-mouth campaign to star Andrea Riseborough (who is really great in the film);

Read more: New to Prime Video in March

At the same time, the stunning Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s first film, lands on MUBI.

Please note that a subscription may be required to watch.

Sully (2016) | BBC iPlayer – pick of the week

Sully is Clint Eastwood’s dramatization of the “Miracle on the Hudson,” the incident in which US Airways Flight 1549 lost engine power and its pilots Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) saved the lives of the passengers. landing the plane in the Hudson River.

Read more: New to Disney+ in March

The film emphasizes how the resulting fame is isolating — it cuts him off from his family and from relating to the people he meets, because whether in jest or genuine reverence, idolization is alienating. Worse, an investigation into the specifics of the crash fuels that anxiety. The National Transportation Safety Board advances its actions that day and wonders if Sully caused the crash, which could end his career, an outcome the board seems to be chasing through simulations and confirmation bias. But even they, as Sully points out, are just doing their jobs.

The story continues

Sully recounts the event from multiple angles, showing it from the perspective of the people who witnessed the event as well as those on the plane. Rather than simplifying it to one heroic act at a time, Eastwood presents a new way in which someone besides the pilots proved critical to saving lives on the plane: the flight attendants stay in control during the panic, the close coast guard saving them from the frozen river, air traffic control keeping prying eyes away, even people looking at passenger lists.

All of this joint effort, from “the best of New York” as the end cards say, is presented in contrast to the panel “getting humanity out of the cockpit” as they present their case for human error causing the crash, when that Humanity – not just Sully – was so important to sustaining the lives of those on board.

This more humble approach to the story is paired with Tom Hanks’ performance as Sully, who wears a huge fatigue on his forehead without overplaying it, gently moving his character away from steely-eyed stoicism, more towards a man suffering from too much attention that he doesn’t really give him. they want, who would rather share the praise.

Also on BBC iPlayer: Stronger (2017), The Bling Ring (2013)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) | NOW with a Sky Cinema subscription

The often wicked and nihilistic satire of Bodies Bodies Bodies – a slasher and murder mystery set in a mansion with a group of young adults (and a much older man) – channels the black comedy of something like Heathers (a film director Halina Reijn has directly referred to as influence) through mocking the modern attachment to phones and social media.

Read more: New to Sky Cinema/NOW in March

A mix of obnoxious 20-somethings hang out during a hurricane at the mansion of Pete Davidson’s character, the wealthiest member of the group. The reunion is short, several of them showing mixed reactions to Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) showing up unannounced with her new girlfriend (Maria Bakalova of Borat 2 fame, much more honest here). After a rather laborious set up, during a wink kill type game someone actually gets killed and it’s unclear who the culprit is and the team immediately begins to completely fall apart.

Watch a trailer for Bodies Bodies Bodies

Along the way, the Gen Z satire can get a little tiresome through mock parroting of how young people talk on the Internet, characters repeating common buzzwords until they sound meaningless. Maybe that’s the point – there’s some realism in how it mimics how arguments on the internet very quickly pick up real issues that aren’t relevant, or how people compete to be recognized as the most persecuted.

But it’s also uninteresting, as the film constantly operates on this same level with no variation or really, any clarity about what it wants to say about these characters beyond their ingratitude. At least the film is sonically propelled by a typically excellent score by Disasterpeace, which somehow feels both modern and old-fashioned with its dramatic electronic pulses and the team’s heightened panic.

Its satirical elements remain flat, but it’s still quite entertaining with some sharp lines as each character blames themselves. Then there’s just about any line delivered by Rachel Sennott, who practically carries the whole thing on her back, before a cheesy ending pulls the film back from the brink.

Also new to NOW: Leslie (2022), Marlowe (2023)

Boston Strangler (2023) | Disney+

From Netflix’s hit series Dahmer to their other hit series You, it’s a great time to be alive if you fancy yourself a serial killer. Disney is now throwing its hat into the ring with the period drama Boston Strangler about the efforts of journalists and the police to catch the serial killer of women in the late 1960s.

Keira Knightley is miscast as Loretta McLaughlin, a hard-nosed reporter who isn’t so much assigned the Boston Strangler case as bulldozed. The real McLaughlin was a groundbreaking journalist, particularly for her later work covering the AIDS crisis, but the film’s McLaughlin indulges in a girlboss hashtag stereotype that skirts the nuance of balancing a career with fighting sexism.

Read more: The chilling true story of the Boston Strangler

The supporting performances – particularly from Alessandro Nivola as the obsessive detective – are much better. With a procedural narrative straight out of Law and Order, The Boston Strangler wouldn’t be out of place on ITV on a Sunday night. – SM

Also new to Disney+: Finding Michael (2023)