Movie reviews: 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' is a mix of exhilaration and exhaustion

This week, TV pop culture critic Richard Crouse reviews new movies: 'Spider-Man: No Way Home,' 'Nightmare Alley,' 'Red Rocket,' and 'Flee.'

At the beginning of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the new two-and-a-half-hour-long superhero movie now playing in theatres, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) learns it’s hard to be a masked, crime fighter when everybody knows who you are under your red and black suit.

Exposed by supervillain Mysterio at the end of “Spider-Man: Far from Home,” Parker’s life has been turned upside down. And not in a fun way, as in 2002's “Spider-Man” when Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst shared an upside-down smooch in the rain.

That was harmless good fun.

These days, the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger’s newfound notoriety makes it impossible for him to balance his personal life and relationships with girlfriend M.J. (Zendaya), best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), in addition to his role as a world saving crime fighter.