{"id":13214,"date":"2025-10-11T12:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T16:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13214"},"modified":"2025-11-11T11:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:55:06","slug":"kiss-of-the-spider-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/10\/11\/kiss-of-the-spider-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiss of the Spider Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roadside Attractions\/Musical-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 128 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual content, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bill Condon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bill Condon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Sam Davis (score) and Kander and Ebb (songs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tobias A. Schliessler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 10, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Jennifer Lopez, Tony Dovolani, Josefina Scaglione, Bruno Bichir.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I like musicals. I like Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters). I liked his other musicals- Chicago (2002, writer only), Dreamgirls (2006), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Greatest Showman (2017, writer only). I did not like Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong>. It just never came to full life for me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a bit of history with Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong>. It began life as a novel by Argentine author Manuel Puig. It was made into the 1985 film starring William Hurt (he won Best Actor), Raul Julia and Sonia Braga. It was then turned into the 1992 stage musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander and Fred Ebb. Now Condon has made a film version of the stage show. It isn\u2019t one of his better efforts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The new movie stars Diego Luna (Rogue One) as Valentin, a political prisoner in 1983 Argentina, a time of great upheaval in the South American country. One day, he gets a new cellmate, a gay window dresser named Molina (Tonatiuh, Promised Land) doing time for public indecency. It\u2019s not by accident these two men share a cell. The warden wants Molina to pump Valentin for information about a possible uprising against the current regime. If he succeeds, he will be paroled.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To pass the time and to gain Valentin\u2019s trust, Molina recounts his favorite movie, a musical called Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring his favorite actress Ingrid Luna (Lopez, Selena). During these scenes, the setting shifts from a depressing jail cell to a Technicolor world filled with glamorous people, exotic locations, intrigue and a deadly curse. There\u2019s also singing and dancing. Valentin initially dismisses the movie as pabulum for the masses, but becomes more interested as the two men grow closer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I remember liking the original film when I saw it on video way back in 1987. I haven\u2019t seen it since then. I thought about rewatching it before I saw the new version, but I couldn\u2019t find the time. Now I\u2019m thinking I should rewatch it to see if I still like it. It has to be easier to sit through than the musical redo. It isn\u2019t a terrible movie per se; it\u2019s just one that didn\u2019t hold my interest all that strongly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s not to say Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong> isn\u2019t without its good points. The acting by all three leads is pretty good. Newcomer Tonatiuh all but steals the shows as Molina, a dreamer who loves to see the world as a splashy, colorful musical. It\u2019s his only escape from the brutal reality of prison life where he\u2019s under constant threat by sadistic guards. He\u2019s not at all political even though his sexuality violates the law imposed by the fascist government. Luna is also good as the beaten-down but not beaten revolutionary just biding his time, reading and waiting for the revolution that will free him and his imprisoned brothers-in-arms. He quietly endures pain and torture at the hands of his captors who even poison his food in trying to break his will.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It bears mentioning that both actors play dual roles here. In addition to Molina and Valentin, Tonatiuh and Luna play characters in the Kiss of the Spider Woman movie. Lopez likewise plays two roles, the main character Aurora and the titular \u201cSpider Woman\u201d. The two couldn\u2019t be more different. Aurora is like a sunny mix of Veronica Lake, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe. Spider Woman is the sexy embodiment of death and entrapment. She does a good job with both parts.<\/p>\n

Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong> has an attractive visual palette, especially when it takes us into Molina\u2019s flights of fancy. Their vibrant color scheme reminds one of Pedro Almodovar. It\u2019s in these moments that the film comes to life. Unfortunately, they\u2019re brief and before long, we\u2019re back in real life and the movie stagnates.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Musicals sink or swim based on the music. Are the songs memorable? Are the big numbers impressive? In the case of Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong>, the answer is no on both counts. I couldn\u2019t remember a single song as I left the cinema. The dancing and choreography are fine, but none of the numbers stand out. It doesn\u2019t have a single show-stopper a la \u201cAnd I Am Telling You I\u2019m Not Going\u201d from Dreamgirls. It\u2019s all completely forgettable. When I come out of a musical film, I want at least one song playing on repeat in my head.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s the bottom line. I was bored by Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/strong>. It didn\u2019t draw me into its web like it should have. I didn\u2019t want that to be my reaction, but here we are. It\u2019s not a terrible film by any means, but it\u2019s not going to be remembered as a classic either.\"\"<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roadside Attractions\/Musical-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 128 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual content, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bill Condon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bill Condon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Sam Davis (score) and Kander and Ebb (songs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tobias A. Schliessler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 10, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Jennifer Lopez, Tony Dovolani, Josefina Scaglione, Bruno Bichir. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Kiss-of-the-Spider-Woman-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13217,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214\/revisions\/13217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}