Damon Smith reviews the latest new releases MAD ABOUT THE BOY: THE NOEL COWARD STORY (12A)

BORN in 1899 Middlesex into poverty, Noel Coward left school at nine years old and he nurtured a love of the arts and performance at an early age.

From these exceedingly humble beginnings, Coward became the highest paid writer in the world by the age of 30, building up a vast repertoire of work for stage and screen including Brief Encounter, Blythe Spirit, Private Lives and The Vortex.

Narrated by Alan Cumming, director Barnaby Thompson’s feature-length documentary celebrates the life and times of the wit and playwright – featuring previously unseen home movies recently discovered in the storage vaults of the Noel Coward Estate.

Extensive archive material and rare photographs capture intimate moments, augmented with contributions from Rupert Everett as the voice of Coward.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (PG)

RELEASED in 2018, the dazzling computer-animated adventure Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse championed diversity and inclusion with a menagerie of gifted spiderfolks led by Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore).

Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman’s visually striking picture, which was billed as “a pretty hardcore origin story”, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

The saga based on Marvel

Comics characters continues in a sequel directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K Thompson that tumbles through the Multiverse. Miles reunites with classmate Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and encounters a superpowered team of protectors known as the Spider Society including Peter B Parker (Jake Johnson) and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac).

These web slingers must unite to neutralise the insidious threat posed by The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) and other unsavoury characters from the parallel realms.