Best new movies and TV series on BINGE: April 2021

Each month, lots of new films and TV shows are added to BINGE’s’s library. Critic Travis Johnson surveys each month’s selections and picks for titles most worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top picks: TV

Black Narcissus (April 5)

This remake of the acclaimed 1947 film (or re-adaptation of the 1939 source novel, if you prefer) of the same name sees on order of Anglican nuns struggling to establish a monastery in the Himalayas—only to fall foul of abhorrent weather, local traditions and their own suppressed and repressed desires.

The original film, a perfectly overheated melodrama by legendary British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a good model for OTT serialized dramatics and the stacked cast, including Gemma Arterton, Alessandro Nivola, Aisling Franciosi, Diana Rigg, and Jim Broadbent, will surely make a good fit of it.

The Nevers (April 12)

Creator (and now former showrunner) Joss Whedon’s name may be mud, but his new series still intrigues. Set in the Victorian Age, The Nevers sees a gang of women inexplicably gain superpowers. Together they fight… well, not crime, seeing as it’s hard enough to make a quid in the stews of London, but the upper class.

It’s kind of like a steampunk riff on X-Men, which will certainly attract fans of either or both. Laura Donnelly, Olivia Williams, Ben Chaplin, Anne Skelly, James Norton and Nick Frost star. x

Mare of Easttown (April 19)

Kate Winslet stars as private detective Mare Sheehan, whose personal life is already on shaky ground when she begins investigating a murder that will uncover some awful truths about her small Pennsylvania town. A grim and foreboding crime procedural, Mare of Easttown is directed by Craig Zobel (Compliance, The Hunt), and co-stars Guy Pearce, Evan Peters, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice and Julianne Nicholson.

Top Picks: Movies

Muriel’s Wedding (April 4)

Put-upon Muriel (Toni Collette) dreams of ABBA, a beautiful wedding and leaving her constrictive home town forever. Her “friends” treat her like dirt, but firebrand Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) believes in here. Can Muriel really have it all? Well, probably not, but PJ Hogan’s world-beating dramedy is still an endlessly entertaining Australian classic.

Mad Max (April 10)

See where it all began! Decades before Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron were menaced by marauding Cirque de Soleil performers, Mel Gibson was pursuit cop Max Rockatansky, who sets out on a roaring rampage of revenge when his wife and child are murdered by a bikie gang. Director George Miller’s low-budget, high-concept exploitation flick is still impressive today, featuring stunt work that has to be seen to be believed.

1917 (April 17)

Inspired by his own grandfather’s wartime experiences, director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) delivers a singularly immersive experience with this harrowing singe-shot war drama. In the darkest days of World War I, two soldiers (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) are tasked with delivering an important message to the front, taking them on an odyssey that will test them to their limits and beyond. Mark Strong, Richard Madden, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch co-star.