October 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” (2025)
Directed by Bill Condon
Culture Representation: Taking place in Argentina, in 1983, the musical film “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A flamboyantly gay prisoner, who is obsessed with the glamour of old Hollywood movies, tells stories to his left-wing activist cell mate about a lovelorn fashion editor, an actress and a femme fatale named the Spider Woman, as the two men grow closer during their imprisonment.
Culture Audience: “Kiss of the Spider Woman” will appeal primarily to fans of movie’s headliners, the various incarnations of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and musicals that have stories within stories.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a re-imagining that bites off more than it can chew. The ambitious “movie within a movie” concept can be messy at times and magical at other times. The 2025 movie music “Kiss of the Spider Woman” aims to bring the best elements of the Oscar-winning 1985 drama film and the Tony-winning 1992 Broadway musical, but the 2025 movie version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” won’t be winning a slew of awards, although this film can be entertaining.
Written and directed by Bill Condon, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is originally based on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel of the same name. The 1985 movie was set in Brazil during political turmoil under a totalitarian government. The 2025 movie takes place under similar political turmoil in 1983 in Argentina, the country that is the setting of the novel. The movie musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman” had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The movie was filmed in Uruguay.
In the 2025 version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” openly gay prisoner Luis Molina (played by Tonatiuh), who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for public indecency (he was caught having sexual activity with another man in a public bathroom), is transferred to the section of the prison where the political prisoners are held. Luis (who worked as a clothing store window dresser before he was arrested) becomes the prison cell mate of left-wing political activist Valentín Arregui (played by Diego Luna), who is part of the resistance movement against the current Argentinian government. Unbeknownst to Valentín, Luis has been planted in the cell by prison warden Oscar Ledesma (played by Bruno Bichir) as a spy who’s under orders to get confidential information from Valentín, so that Valentín’s cohorts and loved ones can be punished.
As a reward for getting the type of information that Oscar is seeking, Luis has been promised an early parole. Luis desperately wants this parole because he’s worried about his ailing widowed mother (played by Lucila Gandolfo), who dotes on Luis and sends him care packages while he’s incarcerated. Luis’ father died when Luis was 4 years old. When Luis was a child, his mother (who doesn’t have a first name in the movie) worked as an usher in a movie theater and brought Luis to her job, where Luis would spend hours watching movies.
Luis, who is a dedicated follower of fashion, is fixated on old-style Hollywood glamour in movies from the 1940s and 1950s. His favorite movie of all time is “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Ingrid Luna, also known as La Luna (played by Jennifer Lopez), in the role of the Spider Woman. Luis tells Valentín the story of the Spider Woman, a mystical femme fatale, who is from a fictional South American country. Every 10 years, the Spider Woman goes to a village and demands that a villager sacrifice a loved one to her. The sacrificed person dies after the Spider Woman kisses that person.
Luis often says he wishes he could be like the actresses who are his idols. He also tells Valentín the story of a fictional 1950s fashion magazine editor named Aurora (also played by Lopez), a bachelorette who hasn’t had a great romance in her life because she mistrusts men. Aurora’s closeted gay best friend/executive assistant is Kendall Nesbitt (also played by Tonatiuh), who becomes jealous when Aurora begins dating a successful photographer named Armando (also played by Luna). The musical’s song-and-dance numbers are centered on this love triangle story, as well as the legend of the Spider Woman.
The 2025 version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” has a brief and useless love triangle subplot in Luis’ story about Aurora. Armando’s ex-girlfriend Paulina Paz (played by Aline Mayagoitia) meets Aurora at a gala event on the same night that Aurora meets Armando. The two women exchange catty comments before Paulina catches the eye of Johnny Deisderio (played by Driton “Tony” Dovolani), a “two-bit gangster” who extorts people, according to Luis.
When Luis and Valentín first meet each other in their prison cell, Valentín is stand-offish and rude. Valentín tells talkative Luis that Valentín wants silence in their prison cell while Valentín is reading and studying. Valentín takes himself very seriously as a progressive activist and went on a hunger strike last year.
When Luis asks Valentín if he has a significant other, Valentín mentions that he has a special woman in his life named Marta (played by Josefina Scaglione), whom he says is patiently waiting for Valentín to be released from prison. Luis says that his most recent crush has been on a married father named Gabriel (played by Augusto Gordillo), who enjoys Luis flirting with Gabriel but who hasn’t reciprocated Luis’ affections. However, according to Luis, Gabriel has confided in Luis and shared some of Gabriel’s biggest secrets with Luis.
Early on in the movie, Valentín makes it clear to Luis that Valentín is not sexually attracted to men. “Don’t worry,” Luis sniffs. “You’re not my type.” During the course of the movie, Luis blurs the lines of his gender identity in ways that indicate that Luis is gender-fluid. Most of the time, Luis seems to identify as a gay man. At other times, Luis says he feels like a woman and hints that he could be a transgender woman. And in another scene, Luis says Luis doesn’t want to be identified by any gender at all, which suggests that Luis sometimes identifies as nonbinary.
Although Luis’ gender fluidity is considered too radical for this conservative Argentinian society in 1983, Luis has some very old-fashioned ideas of gender roles when it comes to men and women. Luis tells Valentín his thoughts on feminism. “A real woman doesn’t want equality. There’s no kick to it.” In response, Valentín (who believes in gender equality) scoffs at Luis: “You’re full of crap.”
And speaking of being “full of crap,” a low point in the movie is an unnecessary scene where Valentín has been poisoned by the prison guards who gave him a recent meal, and Valentín defecates on himself. About 10 minutes of screen time is all about this defecation and Luis removing Valentín’s trousers and underwear so he can help Valentín clean up. It’s literally one of the messiest parts of the movie.
Although Luis tells Valentín when they first meet that Valentín isn’t his type, over time it becomes obvious that Luis is attracted to Valentín, who is the avatar for Armando in Luis’ fantasies where Luis openly admits that he wants to be like Aurora, Ingrid Luna, and all the other fabulous divas who preoccupy Luis’ thoughts. Luis tells Valentín that Luis isn’t impressed with actresses such as Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Sissy Spacek and Glenda Jackson because he thinks that these talented actresses don’t know how to be glamorous. As time goes on, Valentín starts to enjoy hearing Luis’ stories, and the two men have a growing emotional attachment to each other.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is hit and miss when it comes to all aspects of the film. The costume design runs the gamut from top-notch cinematic quality to Vegas-impersonator tacky. The movie’s production design, which is at its best in the song-and-dance scenes, requires a lot of suspension of disbelief in the prison scenes. Luis and Valentín get a lot of decorative amenities that wouldn’t be allowed in most prisons. These decorations include lighted candles, which would actually be very dangerous inside a prison cell.
Luis also has a beaded curtain for his bed. Luis mentions that he got the beaded curtain because he lets the prison guards degrade him with homophobic insults. (“Kiss of the Spider Woman” shows this degradation, as well as physical abuse that Luis and Valentín experience in prison from the cruel prison employees.) More grittiness was needed for the prison cell’s set designs, to put an emphasis on how deprived these prisoners are, instead of making it look like the prisoners can decorate their cells to look like a fortune teller’s room.
This version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” has impressive cinematography in contrasting the dark and grim setting of the prison and the vibrant Technicolor settings of Luis’ stories. However, the back-and-forth editing transitions between Luis’ stories and Luis’ reality are sometimes awkward. The movie also has a very superficial depiction of the political turmoil that is given much more importance in other versions of “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
As a musical, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” has adequate but not spectacular singing performances of the songs, which were originally written by John Kander and Fred Ebb for the Broadway musical. The movie does not have most of the songs from the stage musical. Lopez sings the “Kiss of the Spider Woman” title song in what sounds like an over-produced dub created in a recording studio.
Lopez and Luna perform “An Everyday Man,” “Where You Are” and “A Visit” with acceptable range, but nothing they do in the song-and-dance numbers would be considered Oscar-worthy. Tonatiuh’s version of “She’s a Woman” is a highlight of the film, but there aren’t enough of these moments to make “Kiss of the Spider Woman” an outstanding movie musical. “Come Out,” an original bonus track written for the movie, is underwhelming and somewhat forgettable. The movie’s music score by Sam Davis is serviceable.
The performances in 2025’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” are energetic, but most of the love scenes look very fake and forced. Lopez and Tonatiuh have memorable moments and show plenty of on-screen magnetism, but they look like they’re trying too hard to win awards by being in this movie. Luna fares the best with the movie’s most naturalistic performance, which sometimes gets overshadowed by his co-stars’ affected and show-boating mannerisms. “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is worth watching for anyone who is inclined to like musicals, but it’s far from a masterpiece and would’ve been better with a more streamlined story.
Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “Kiss of the Spider Woman” in U.S. cinemas on October 10, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 11, 2025.
