It’s no coincidence that “Sully” was released on the 15th anniversary weekend of 9/11. In ways obvious and subtle, “Sully” is a kind of antidote to 9/11, if there could be such a thing.

“You know it’s been a long time that New York had news this good, even with a plane involved,” remarks a US Airlines official to pilots, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks, a certain Oscar actor nominee) and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (always excellent Aaron Eckhart), after they successful glided US Airways Flight 1549 to a safe landing on the Hudson River following a bird strike (yes, those Canada Geese) that caused the failure of the plane’s both engines.

The “Miracle on the Hudson,” Jan. 15, 2008, occurred less than seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that took out the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and crashed a plane into the Pentagon and a plane into a field in Shanksville, Somerset County.

In the compact and masterfully-directed “Sully,” director Clint Eastwood skillfully weaves between the three minutes or so flight of the doomed Airbus after it departs LaGuardia Airport; flashbacks to the flight and landing, Sullenberger’s nightmarish reinterpretation of his decision, and a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation of Sullenberger’s decision to ditch the plane in the Hudson, rather than return to LaGuardia or attempt to reach Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

Sullenberger’s gut decision to ditch (in the vicinity of Pier 88 at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum) is posited against flight simulations. Eastwood brilliantly sets up the psyche of the man in the arena, in the moment, versus second-guessing experts sifting through information afterward. “We did our job,” Sullenberg confides to Skiles. Indeed, he did, based on the film. And so did Eastwood, a likely Oscar director nominee for “Sully.”

“Sully” is a nail-biter, as well as at least a one-Kleenex movie, leavened by some wry moments of humor (Skiles says, “I’ve never been so happy to be in New York in my life.”) and often acerbic dialogue by Sullenberger (“Not a crash. Forced water landing,” he says, ahem, sullenly), last to abandon ship, so to speak, as he checks the aisles, waist-deep in water, to make sure all passengers are balanced on the plane’s wings or flotation devices

Eastwood seems to get the details right, from the worried air traffic controller, to the cockpit instrumentation, to the shorthand pilot jargon. Pilots and aviation fans will enjoy this aspect of the film alone.

Eastwood also seems to get it right when it comes to the First Responders, which included ferry captains and scenic tour boat captains in addition to vessels from the New York City Fire and Police Departments and United States Coast Guard, key to ensuring the safety of the 155 passengers and crew, facing hypothermia in the freezing Hudson and middle-of-winter weather.

Laura Linney provides excellent support as Sullenberger’s wife. But it’s Hanks who enervates the material in the screenplay by Todd Komarnicki (screenwriter, “Perfect Stranger,” 2007) based on the book by “Highest Duty” by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow, lifting it above the erstwhile docudrama and documentary film, to the level of a classic piece of American cinema (“155, 155, 155,’ he intones, finally satisfied that “Hey, no one dies.”).

Eastwood, 86, with the 35th film he’s directed, wastes no time in “Sully,” starting the film over the opening studio logos with the pilot’s voice (thus foreshadowing the playing of the cockpit tape during the NTSB hearing. We won’t spoil the details of the opening scenes, other than to say it’s bravura film-making.

“Sully” exudes the quiet confidence of a master craftsman. Don’t forget, Eastwood essentially had a 208-second, or approximate three-minute, film (the time that Flight 1549 took off, hit the birds and landed in the Hudson) that needed to be expanded into a feature film.

“Sully” is one of 2016’s best films, a satisfying piece of cinema in this or any year, and sure to be a contender for Oscar picture and other nominations.

“Sully,”MPAA rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13.) for some peril and brief strong language; Genre: Biography, Drama; Run time: 1 hr., 36 min.; Distributed by Warner Bros.

Credit Readers Anonymous:During the “Sully” end credits, Sullenberger and passengers are shown reuniting at the actual Flight 1549 plane on display at the Carolinas Aviation Museum, Charlotte, N.C. Clint Eastwood, Tierney Sutton and J.B. Eckl wrote the song, “Flying Home,” performed by Tierney Sutton Band during the closing credits.

Box Office,Sept. 9: Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks piloted “Sully” to a No. 1 landing, opening with $35.5 million, with “When the Bough Breaks” opening way back at No. 2, with $15 million, choking “Don’t Breathe” to No. 3 after two weeks at No. 1 with $8.2 million and $66.8 million, three weeks:

4. “Suicide Squad,” $5.7 million, $307.4 million, six weeks; 5. “The Wild Life,” $3.4 million, opening; 6. “Kubo and the Two Strings,” $3.2 million, $40.8 million, four weeks; 7. ”Pete’s Dragon,” $2.9 million, $70 million, five weeks; 8. “Bad Moms,” $2.8 million, $107.5 million, seven weeks; 9. “Hell or High Water,” $2.6 million, $19.8 million, five weeks; 10. “Sausage Party,” $2.3 million, $93.1 million, five weeks.

Unreel,Sept. 16:

“Bridget Jones’s Baby,”R: Sharon Maguire directs Renée Zellweger, Patrick Dempsey, Emma Thompson and Colin Firth in the romantic comedy about the British publishing executive who now in her 40s. It’s a sequel to “Bridget Jones Diary,” 2001, and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” 2004.

“Blair Witch,”R: Adam Wingard directs James Allen McCune, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson and Valorie Curry in the horror film sequel to “The Blair Witch Project,” 1999: “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” 2000, and “A Blair Witch Tale,” 2008. There was also “The Burkittsville 7,” 2000, a TV short which purports to tell the “real” story; “Shadow of the Blair Witch,” 2000, a TV Sci-Fi Channel mockumentary; “The Blair Witch Rejects,” 1999, a satire, and something called “The Bare Witch Project,” 2015, which, ahem, either was or wasn’t released. Guess that’s why they call it a “project.”

“Snowden,”R: Oliver Stone directs Scott Eastwood, Shailene Woodley, Nicolas Cage, Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the biography drama about Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information to the press in n 2013.

“The Beatles: Eight Days a Week,”Ron Howard directs the documentary, a compilation of footage of concerts, interviews and stories about Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr of the Beatles’ 250 concerts from 1963 to 1966.

Four Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes