Film Review: Boston Strangler
Boston Strangler
20th Century Studios, Scott Free Productions, LuckyChap Entertainment
Hulu
Release date
March 17, 2023
Description
Loretta McLaughlin was the reporter who broke the story of the Boston Strangler. Along with reporter Jean Cole, McLaughlin challenged the sexism of the era, pursuing the story at personal risk and uncovering corruption that cast doubt on the identity of the strangler.
#whatonwhatsgood Express Review
The Boston Strangler murdered 13 women in the Boston, Massachusetts area in the 1960s. The Boston Strangler movie follows Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and fellow reporter Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) who are trying to get the story out about who is doing these crimes. Unfortunately, they are met with many challenges from men in order to tell their narrative.
Boston Strangler is a decent film. I like the pairing of Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Directed by
Matt Ruskin
Written by
Matt Ruskin
Produced by
Ridley Scott, Kevin J. Walsh, Michael Pruss, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara
Starring
Keira Knightley as Loretta McLaughlin
Carrie Coon as Jean Cole
Alessandro Nivola as Detective Conley
David Dastmalchian as Albert DeSalvo
Morgan Spector as James McLaughlin
Bill Camp as Commissioner Edmund McNamara
Chris Cooper as Jack MacLaine
Robert John Burke as Eddie Holland
Rory Cochrane as Detective DeLine
Peter Gerety as Eddie Corsetti
Luke Kirby as F. Lee Bailey
Ryan Winkles as Daniel Marsh
Greg Vrotsos as George Nassar
Pamela Jayne Morgan as Anne Samans
Cinematography
Ben Kutchins
Edited by
Anne McCabe
Music by
Paul Leonard-Morgan
Carrie Coon who plays "Jean Cole" discusses "Boston Strangler" at World Premiere
"They are great, strong, female characters because they are real women, who came up in journalism at a time when it was incredibly male, dominated.
There were very few women working in newsrooms, and certainly not covering crime.
Jean Cole was a real person. She worked her way up.
They were trying to take care of their families and run their households while they were getting death threats covering this case.
Certainly, it's a love song to female investigative journalists.
Who knows how many lives got saved because people didn't open their doors. Women were sleeping with ski poles and getting dogs and moving in together. I mean they were really terrified. This was 10 years before we even had the term serial killer."
Chris Cooper who plays "Jack Maclaine" discusses "Boston Strangler" at World Premiere
"I think it's a story about how hard it was for women in the early sixties...the journalists to do hard, hard reporting.
Things really didn't change for women in the newsroom until about the mid-eighties.
Men were very dismissive of women journalists...and continue to be.
My character is Jack Maclaine. He's the managing editor of the paper. They had to go through him, They had to prove themselves. I wasn't going to make it easy for them either. This was early. This is the early sixties. They had to prove themselves, and I was no better than any other man. But you know they finally won me over."
David Dastmalchian who plays "Albert DeSalvo" discusses "Boston Strangler" at World Premiere
"The Boston Strangler is just such a dark chapter in American history. The fact that it took so long for people to put the pieces together and start trying to assemble a case to catch this predator who is harming women on an almost daily basis at one point in the 1960s it's such an important story to tell.
It's about these incredible unstoppable women that wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, and they wouldn't stop hunting this guy and trying to tell the story that nobody wanted to be told."
Keira Knightley who plays "Loretta McLaughlin" discusses "Boston Strangler" at World Premiere
"I play Loretta Mclaughlin in the Boston Strangler who was the real-life woman who sort of made the link between these very notorious crimes....was one of the journalists who really pushed it forward as a very important case.
I was really inspired by her because I felt like she was very strong, and she was very forceful. She had a lot of stuff going against her, and she powered through. So it was a very exciting role for me.
This is a very famous case. The fact that she had been taken out of it, and the female journalists who really push this forward had been largely forgotten...it felt very important to highlight those people.
I think this is very much a love song to female investigative journalists. I think it's really about how important it is to have women in places of power as far as storytelling goes.
This has been a case that was largely ignored by the then male establishment, and it took 2 women to really force the case to prominence.
It's a very punchy fast paced story about a very, very complex case."
Writer / Director Matt Ruskin discusses "Boston Strangler" at World Premiere
"I grew up in Boston, but I knew nothing about the case. I started reading about it a few years ago, and I discovered this incredible murder mystery at the heart of this story and I thought it'd be a really compelling film. And then I discovered these 2 reporters and thought it was just a great way to revisit the case.
I love true crime, but I'm also really drawn to character-driven stories. I was so moved by the lives that these reporters led and the work that they did. Hopefully, people will enjoy the story."
Robert John Burke who plays "Eddie Holland" discusses "Boston Strangler"
"When I found out about this film and the fact that it's still an open case...it's frightening.
The prospect of going out in the street to report this took a lot of guts."
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