Tonatiuh Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ (2025), starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez

October 14, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)

“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.

Tonatiuh and Diego Luna in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)

“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.

Review: ‘Carry-On,’ starring Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler and Jason Bateman

December 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Carry-On”

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, the action film “Carry-On” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent is forced to participate in a terrorist plot, where he has been told that he has to let a certain carry-on suitcase past the X-ray machine that he is monitoring and onto a certain plane, or else his pregnant girlfriend will be murdered.

Culture Audience: “Carry-On” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies that are predictable but enjoyable.

Jason Bateman in “Carry-On” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Carry-On” is a preposterous but entertaining thrill ride about an airport security agent caught up in a deadly terrorist plot involving a smuggled carry-on suitcase. The movie doesn’t take itself seriously and has well-cast heroes and villains. This is the type of movie made for escapism for viewers—not to make any meaningful statements or to provoke deep thoughts.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by T.J. Fixman, “Carry-On” takes place in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. The movie was actually filmed in New Orleans, mainly at the decommissioned terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. “Carry-On” begins by showing two Russian thugs named Olek (played by Jeff Pope) and Yuri (played by Raymond Rehage) at a large greenhouse somewhere in Los Angeles. The movie’s chief villain (played by Jason Bateman)—an assassin whose name is never revealed—enters the greenhouse, shoots Olek and Yuri, and then sets the greenhouse on fire.

The next scene in “Carry-On” shows live-in couple—30-year-old Ethan Kopek (played by Taron Egerton) and 27-year-old Nora Parisi (played by Sofia Carson)—waking up to get ready to go to work. Ethan and Nora, who have been dating each other for three years, both work at Los Angeles International Airport, also known as LAX. Ethan is a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent. Nora is an operations manager at North Wind Airlines, a company that was fabricated for this movie.

Nora is pregnant with her and Ethan’s first child, but the movie never says how far along she is in her pregnancy. Based on her physical appearance and conversations about the pregnancy, Nora is probably two or three months pregnant. Ethan and Nora are a happy couple looking forward to the birth of the child, but Ethan has some lingering insecurities that are affecting the relationship.

It’s eventually revealed in conversations that Ethan, who is originally from New Jersey, isn’t satisfied with the way his career is going. He moved to Los Angeles to be with Nora after she was hired by North Wind, which requires her to live in the Los Angeles area. Ethan only became a TSA agent at LAX so he and Nora could work in the same building.

What Ethan really wants to do with his life is be a police officer. He applied to enroll at a police academy once and was rejected. He was so hurt by this rejection that he hasn’t bothered to apply again, even though Nora keeps encouraging Ethan to re-apply. Nora candidly tells Ethan that when he applied to a police academy, it was the last time she saw him truly excited about his life.

A little later in the movie, it’s revealed there are other reasons for Ethan’s insecurity and disillusionment about becoming a police officer: His father (who’s never seen in the movie) also wanted to be a police officer and applied to a police academy several times but was always rejected. Ethan’s father is now an Uber driver. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that Ethan is afraid he’s going to end up just like his father—doing a job he doesn’t really like because he couldn’t get his dream job.

It’s under these circumstances that Ethan arrives for work late (which apparently isn’t the first time), where he has a reputation for being likable but not particularly reliable. It’s why Ethan has been assigned the job of a metal-detector agent instead of the more challenging job of being an X-ray agent responsible for operating the equipment that scans carry-on items. It’s also why Ethan hasn’t been promoted in the three years that he’s had this job.

Ethan’s closest friend at his job is a mild-mannered co-worker named Jason Noble (played by Sinqua Walls), a married father who is a TSA agent who operates X-ray machines. Jason advises Ethan to try to get a promotion to have this type of job because Ethan is going to need more money to raise a child. Their boss Phil Sarkowski (played by Dean Norris) bluntly tells Ethan that he hasn’t given Ethan a promotion because Ethan acts like he doesn’t want to be at this TSA job. Ethan promises that he will be more responsible and wants to prove that he’s worthy of getting a promotion.

Jason tells a skeptical Phil that Jason will switch job responsibilities with Ethan on that day so Ethan can get a chance to show that he has the ability to do the X-ray job. Phil reluctantly agrees. It’s the first of many things that don’t ring true in “Carry-On” because there’s nothing to show that Ethan was trained for this X-ray job before being suddenly thrust into it.

Of course, this unlikely but still possible twist of fate is why Ethan is in the proverbial “hot seat” that makes him the distressed hero of the story. He becomes a target when terrorists force him to allow a certain passenger and the passenger’s carry-on suitcase through the X-ray machine and onto the plane. The terrorists refuse to say what’s in the suitcase, but Ethan finds out that the plan is to kill all of the approximately 250 people on the plane after the plane is in flight. (This review won’t reveal what’s in the suitcase, except to say it’s not an obvious weapon, such as a bomb.)

It isn’t long before Ethan is contacted by the person who forces Ethan to participate in this deadly terrorist plot. This person (the same killer from the movie’s opening scene) becomes Ethan’s chief adversary. Even though this assassin’s name is never revealed in “Carry-On,” in the movie’s end credits, he is listed only as Traveler. This elusive killer is able to avoid detection because he looks like a regular middle-aged guy who’s able to blend in easily.

Traveler has an unnamed accomplice, identified as Watcher (played by Theo Rossi), who is stationed in a repair van in an airport parking lot. Somehow, this van has surveillance equipment that can track several areas inside the airport. One of the repeated scenarios is that Watcher and Traveler are constantly tracking Ethan in the airport through surveillance, which makes it harder for Ethan to get help when he finds himself embroiled in this terrorist plot. It’s a very far-fetched scenario. Ethan is able to find a few “blind spots” in the airport that the terrorists can’t see.

Watcher and Traveler are able to quickly find out a lot of personal information about the TSA agents. These two criminals had originally planned to force Jason into their terrorist plan by holding Jason’s wife and daughter hostage. But when Watcher and Traveler see that Ethan is working at the X-ray station where Jason normally works, they decided to target Ethan under the threat of killing pregnant Nora.

Traveler tells Watcher about this sudden change of plans: “Let’s pivot. Fill in some blanks. No matter what, this gets done today.” Traveler is able to get a cell phone placed on the conveyer belt that Ethan is operating. Just as Ethan sees that no airline passenger has claimed this phone, he sees text messages appear on the phone telling Ethan to wear an ear bud that is placed nearby.

It’s the first time that Ethan hears from Traveler, who communicates with Ethan through this ear bud. Traveler tells Ethan about the plan and describes in detail what the passenger and briefcase look like. Ethan later finds out that the passenger carrying the briefcase is named Mateo Flores (played by Tonatiuh), who is wearing a red baseball cap. At first Ethan thinks it’s all an elaborate prank. But when Traveler tells Ethan how many personal details he knows about Ethan’s life, Ethan is convinced this is no prank.

Traveler not only threatens Ethan by saying Nora will be killed if Ethan doesn’t follow Traveler’s orders but Traveler also threatens to kill other people inside the airport if Ethan tries to get help or report this terrorist plot. Traveler says that if Ethan does something such as removing the ear bud to cut off contact with Traveler, that could get someone killed too. At one point, Traveler asks Ethan if he would rather have 250 people die on an airplane or thousands of people die in an airport.

When Ethan asks Traveler if he’s a terrorist, Travel replies: “I consider myself a freelance facilitator.” It’s implied throughout the movie that Traveler and Watcher are “middle men” hired by a larger entity, which is never named in the movie. Traveler is often cold and detached, but he also has a tendency to rant and ramble about things that irritate him. During some of his rants, he reveals his contempt for millennials and Gen Z people, whom he thinks are wimpy and over-reliant on technology. Traveler also thinks he’s the smartest person in the room who’s skilled at psychoanalysis as a way to predict and manipulate people’s actions.

“Carry-On” has a few supporting characters who are pivotal to the story. Los Angeles police detective Elena Cole (played by Danielle Deadwyler) is the first law enforcement officer to suspect that there might be a terrorist plan put into motion at LAX. She’s later joined by Agent Alcott (played by Logan Marshall-Green) from the FBI. Ethan also has a TSA co-worker named Eddie (played by Gil Perez-Abraham), an aspiring rapper who shamelessly peddles his music to his co-workers and other people at the airport. Eddie is the movie’s “comic relief” character.

“Carry-On” has some other intentionally comedic moments, including a montage of angry and difficult passengers who feel that they’re being inconvenienced in some way by the TSA screening process. Traveler also has some wry comments that are meant to show that he’s deeply cynical about how society works and he’s just a hired gun who doesn’t care about taking sides in politics when it comes to the work he’s hired to do. Detective Cole also has some one-liner jokes that are a bit corny but are intended to bring some laughs.

“Carry-On” is an effective thriller not just because of the adrenaline-packed actions scenes but also because of the performances from the movie’s talented cast members. A movie like this is often appealing because of the chief hero and the chief villain. Egerton is able to be a vulnerable “everyman” who’s easy to root for when it’s time for Ethan to show he’s a lot braver and smarter than most people think he might be. Bateman is also quite convincing as a mysterious but menacing terrorist. “Carry-On” doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a crowd-pleasing movie that has a few twists to its formulaic plot but ends up right where most viewers expect.

Netflix premiered “Carry-On” on December 13, 2024.