Argentinian author Manuel Puig wrote his 1976 novel, which was set in 1975, then adapted his novel into a stage play in 1983. In 1985, a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the novel moved the action to Brazil. Then composer John Kander, lyricist Fred Ebb and playwright Terrence McNally collaborated to adapt the novel into a Tony Award winning musical starring legendary Chita Rivera. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (2025) adapts that musical. Starting May 1983 in Argentina, queer Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) begins to share a cell with tight lipped, single-minded political prisoner, Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna). As the guards turn up the pressure on Valentin to rat out his comrades, Molina distracts Valentin with stories of his favorite actress Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), nicknamed La Luna, and his favorite movie in which La Luna plays two roles, magazine editor Aurora and a supernatural figure that protects Aurora’s village, The Spider Woman. Initially the pair do not mesh, but they begin to rely on each other to survive. Will they make it out alive?
Tonatiuh is perfect as Molina. Molina is assigned male at birth, expresses the desire to become a woman as aspirational, not in a practical and logistical way, and is attracted to men. From the minute Molina is on screen, Tonatiuh is Molina in every gesture, utterance and action. The most political act anyone can do is be themselves in a world that criminalizes their existence, and though Molina would eschew any attributions of being a revolutionary, they are. They own their past, know how to work the system and are expert at surviving. They face implicit sexual violence from the guards, and Valentin’s initially brusque nature seems to portend that Molina is sharing a jail cell with a machismo revolutionary who will lash out against anything that does not fit his standards of being male.
If you are casting a straight man to play someone who will have a romance with another person assigned male at birth, either get Luna or let him coach the actor because he gets it. Luna takes Valentin on a journey as he recalibrates from using man interchangeably with human being to someone genuinely attracted and in love with Molina. I am sick of seeing ostensibly same sex romance that looks no different from a friendship even if it is progress compared to what came before. Talking to you, “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” (2025). When Luna says, “You want it now,” he already raised the bar before any kissing happens. Meanwhile Luna also plays a man that the system so dehumanized that he had to do the same to himself to survive and not feel. His time with Molina returns emotion to his life, but also fear and the desire to not suffer, not die. He stops letting the government define him as just a revolutionary, but as a full human being who exists for more than the revolution.
The musical portions set in the titular fictional movie is fine. Writer and director Bill Condon has plenty of experience adapting musicals for the big screen: “Chicago” (2002), “Dreamgirls” (2006), “The Greatest Showman” (2017) and “Beauty and the Beast” (2017). The musical feels a bit off, but I’m betting it was a creative choice to reflect how the surroundings are beginning to affect Molina, and like Valentin, is beginning to have new experiences. The musical feels less cohesive than the real story and begins to bleed into Molina’s daily life. He basically prays to Luna, but it is the Spider Woman who answers his prayers and comes to him during his brushes with physical pain and death.
JLo is far better as the Spider Woman whereas Luna and Aurora seem interchangeable instead of Luna playing the two separate characters in the imaginary movie, Luna as Molina’s higher power and the Spider Woman as Molina’s higher power. JLo has always been a strong actor and a confident, memorable, hardworking performer. Maybe it is because two characters are just nice ordinary women whereas the Spider Woman is dramatically different in style and manner. JLo’s physical presence is undeniable. When she is in the room, no one else seems as interesting, and Tonatiuh and Luna play characters in the imaginary movie. Only when JLo is opposite Tonatiuh as Molina does anyone stand a chance, and their scenes together are powerful. If Condon was a smidge less conventional, there could be a “Suspiria” (2019) moment. Paging Luca Guadagnino. The singing is fine, but I will not be rushing to get the soundtrack.
Because “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is airing at the height of trans genocide in this world and just being LGBTQ+ is enough to face threats of being guilty of sex crimes, Molina’s story feels incredibly urgent and unfortunately germane. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” does not feel like a movie about the past, but a movie about the near future without having a specific ideology except the right to an existence filled with love and dignity. The most romantic and disgusting scene is after the guards poison Valentin, and Molina executes the unspoken, never exchanged vow of in sickness and in health. Also in Molina’s final dance sequence, Molina finally gets to appear as they wanted to be, as themselves at the height of glamour. Molina says a joke about “sissies” leading the revolution, but it is true. Anyone heard of Stonewall? The revolution is not in speeches, but in a toast that Molina delivers to their aunt that leaves their uncle furious. That shot of impotent anger summarizes how radical Molina is. In the face of ugliness and threats, Molina ignores others’ agendas and prioritizes their own, one of gratitude, care and love.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is also about the importance of movies or any art in times of turmoil. In the jail yard, two prisoners make music and even Valentin starts to sing. There are no subtitles, and the lyrics are in Spanish, but even without the imagination adding spectacle and staying rooted in the drab, cold present, just small touches elevate humanity. The warden (Bruno Bichir) tells Molina, “Whatever you think you saw here, no one cares” The warden is correct in the sense that all the pain is overwhelming and suffering insurmountable so people do not care to fall into despair, but art, especially movies, makes people care and gives people the energy to act.
Back in theaters once more, does “Kiss of the Spider Woman” appear whenever the movie’s message is needed? It certainly feels as if it does. While the musical can be inconsistent, the movie has enough going for it that it does not have to be perfect to resonate. Though set in a specific time and place, it sadly feels timeless and transcends borders. Bring tissues! “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is the tragic, love story “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) for this era.
