Spider-Noir on Amazon Prime Video [View all]

In a 1930s parallel universe, private dick Ben Reilly (Nicholas Cage) becomes entangled in the machinations of a seductive chanteuse (Li Jun Li) and her mobster boss (Brendan Gleeson), who is losing his grip on the mayor's office as the city goes through a new election campaign. As matters get dicey, Reilly is forced to revive his alter-ego, a masked crimefighter called "The Spider", who can shoot sticky threads from his wrists to scale buildings and disable foes. But Reilly isn't the only guy with superpowers and he must contend with a man made of sand, another whose skin is armor, and an incredibly annoying frustrated actor who controls electricity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this paean to the hardboiled films of the '30s and '40s, boasting terrific performances by Gleeson and Li, along with Karen Rodriguez as Reilly's savvy secretary and Lamorne Morris as his best buddy, a down-on-his-luck photojournalist. But the real draw here is Cage, who embues every line with noirish elegance and twists his body in an arachnoid dance that totally commits to his character's freaky condition.