Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)
Rating: ★★★★
Bill Condon’s musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman takes a prison drama and turns it into something that actually works. Not sure how you pull off a musical set during Argentina’s Dirty War, but somehow this does it.
The movie focuses on two men stuck in a cell together. Diego Luna plays Valentín, a political prisoner who just wants to read his revolutionary texts in peace. Tonatiuh plays Molina, who cannot stop talking about old movies. Specifically about this actress he worships named Ingrid Luna.
You can imagine how well that goes at first.
But watching these two connect is what makes the film work. Tonatiuh doesn’t play Molina as a stereotype – there’s real depth there. And Luna lets Valentín’s transformation happen slowly instead of all at once. You believe they’d actually start caring about each other.
The film-within-a-film sequences are where Condon goes all in. Instead of just having Molina describe movies, we see them. Full musical numbers with Jennifer Lopez playing three roles – the movie star, her character Aurora, and the Spider Woman. Lopez commits completely to the Old Hollywood glamour thing, and it works.
What I appreciated is how these fantasy sequences aren’t just visual breaks from the prison scenes. They’re how Molina communicates. When he can’t say something directly, he tells you about a scene from a movie. Eventually Valentín gets it, and that’s when their relationship really changes.
Valentín’s transformation is what the film is really about. He starts out rigid. Everything is the cause, the movement, the revolution. Personal feelings are weakness. Movies are frivolous garbage.
Watching him soften is genuinely moving. Luna doesn’t overplay it – no big breakdown scene. It’s smaller. He starts listening to Molina’s stories. Shows concern when Molina gets sick. Eventually admits maybe there’s room for both political commitment and human connection.
By the end of the film, Valentín comes to the understanding that Molina keeping his dreams alive despite despair isn’t shallow. It’s its own kind of resistance, and it’s his means of survival.
Not every song works. Some feel like they’re there because it’s a musical and you need X number of songs. The pacing drags in places. And the shift between grim prison reality and glittery fantasy can feel jarring instead of meaningful.
If you loved the 1985 film, this might feel too polished. This one’s prettier, which isn’t always what the story needs.
Despite the rough spots, this worked for me. Tonatiuh is genuinely great. Diego Luna brings exactly what the role needs. Lopez delivers when she’s onscreen, even if she’s not in it as much as the marketing suggests.
The movie asks a direct question: how do you stay human when everything around you is designed to break you down? For Molina, it’s movies and dreams. For Valentín, it’s eventually learning that those dreams matter as much as any political ideology.
Not perfect, but honest where it counts.
Worth seeing if: You’re into musicals that take risks, you want solid performances, or you’re curious how this story works for a 2025 audience.
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