SPIDER-NOIR (2026) stars Nicholas Cage as Ben Reilly, a 1930s PI who once fought crime and injustice as the Spider, with powers acquired from Great War mad science experiments (he played an animated version of the same character in Into the Spider-Verse). After he failed to save his great love, Ben gave up superheroics for the life of a down-at-heels PI. Now, though things are changing as more superhumans show up.
First we have Flint Marko (Jack Huston) whose body can turn into sand. Then comes Lonnie Lincoln (Abraham Popoola), whose body seems stone hard and incredibly strong. Crimelord Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson) is watching these new players with interest, while also hiring Reilly to find the traitor in his organization. Further complications include shady singer Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), and that both Ben’s secretary Janet (Karen Rodriguez) and reporter Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris) think Ben needs to suit up and take Silvermane down.
This is available in black and white and color both, though I couldn’t figure out the B&W option (I’d have preferred it). It was fun, with a solid cast and an interesting alt.version of the Spider-mythos. I was surprised that it actually shows people smoking as most period pieces these days skip that detail. “You told me yourself, Silvermane — never settle for what someone hands you.”
THE SHEEP DETECTIVES (2026) is a very oddball mystery film in which, as the title suggests, the detectives are sheep. George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is a sunny, sheep-loving shepherd — he only takes their wool instead of killing them for mutton — in the kind of small, cozy English village where murders happen frequently. Every evening he reads to his sheep from a mystery novel; Lily (Julia Louise-Dreyfuss) is invariably able to figure them out.
Then one evening, George winds up dead outside his small trailer, and wouldn’t you know there’s no shortage of suspects? The local butcher. George’s young heir. Doesn’t his lawyer (Emma Thompson) seem a little suspicious? And there’s a few other people George feuded with … When it appears the nitwit village constable is way out of his depth, Lily and the sheep decide to investigate. After all, how much harder can mysteries be in real life? While I spotted the murderer early on, this mix of cozy-mystery parody and funny-animal story works really well. With Patrick Stewart as an old ram. “Is there anyone in the world who hasn’t seen Return to Oz?”
I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s YOUNG AND INNOCENT (1937) about six years ago as part of my Hitchcock (re)watch. When the Carolina Theatre announced it as part of their own Hitchcock film festival, TYG and caught it on the big screen. She liked it too, though she was thrown by the blackface musical number at the climax.
After weirdly melodramatic marital spat (as Hitchcock Romance says, it’s a surprise it’s not part of a stage show or a film within the film), the wife turns up strangled. When young Tisdale (Derrick de Marnay) finds the body, he realizes his raincoat belt was the murder weapon he panics and runs, get caught and charged. Realizing his bumbling attorney will be no use, Tisdale goes on the run with the help of Erica (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local chief constable. Can they find out who stole his raincoat before the law catches up with them?
The plot doesn’t make much sense. Is any belt going to be that identifiable? Did the cops even try to locate the husband? But of course such considerations are secondary in a Hitchcock film. What works is the romance and the troubles the duo get into finding the truth. Unlike many of Hitch’s lovers-on-the-run films, such as The 39 Steps, where the hero has to drag the female lead along until she falls in love, Erica takes Tisdale’s side from the get-go. That makes for a lighter film but it works. “Haven’t you seen anyone with a twitch yet?”
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