David R. Walker

Archive for December 16th, 2025

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Director: Bill Condon

Cast: Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez, Tonatiuh, Bruno Bechir, Josefina Scaglione, Driton Dovolani, Aline Mayagoitia

Running Time: 2 hours and 9 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Thank you to United International Pictures for organizing the press preview at Suncoast Cinemas in Durban on Tuesday 9th December 2025.

Forty years after the original Oscar winning film Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) by Argentinian director Hector Babenco which won William Hurt an Oscar for Best Actor back in 1986, Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon reimagines the novel by Manuel Puig as a musical with Diego Luna as political prisoner Valentin Arregui and Tonatiuh as his homosexual cellmate Luis Molina in a Buenos Aires prison in the last brutal days of a military junta in 1983 which terrorized Argentina in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is all about the relationship between the two men, Valentin is all machismo and brute strength while Molina possesses a vivid and flamboyant imagination passing the lonely cell hours telling Valentin about his love of cinema particularly the film Kiss of the Spider Woman and all while trying to extract information about Valentin to tell the authorities.

While the original film was dark and serious touching on the taboo subject of homosexuality at the heights of the AIDS crisis in America, this version is lighter and more vibrant helped immensely by the brilliant casting of pop music icon and actress Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, Maid in Manhattan, Out of Sight) as Aurora the fabulous heroine of our story who Molina aspires to be like. He imagines a transgender version of himself dressed as Aurora with pearls, furs and gorgeous gowns.

Aurora is also the Spider Woman, a role played by Sonia Braga in the original film. Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Lopez (Selena) is radiant as Aurora in Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman effortlessly singing fantastic songs from the stage musical by Terrence McNally.

As the film flicks between fantasy and what is really happening in that dank and sweaty prison cell between Valentin and Molina, a relationship based on desire and repression, Kiss of the Spiderwoman brilliantly creates a contrast between the bright and glamourous world of imaginary cinema which Molina conjures up and that of the two men’s sinister political situation under repression, whereby despite the circumstances queer love triumphs.

The 2025 Kiss of the Spider Woman is vibrant and beautifully done with fabulous singing by Jennifer Lopez, a refreshingly different role for an actress who has been type cast in romantic comedies coupled with a sizzling gay relationship between Valentin and his fatally beautiful and vivid lover Molina.

The tone of this film radiates hope and accepts for the LGBTIQ+ community in an era when sexual orientation is not frowned upon or prohibited like it was back in the early 1980’s.

Mexican actor Diego Luna is no stranger to queer roles, expertly playing Harvey Milk’s hysterical lover Jack Lira in Gus van Sant’s Oscar winning film Milk in 2008.  Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez are brilliant in this musical version of Kiss of the Spiderwoman while Tonatiuh’s portrayal of Molina is suitably camp and tragic.

Bill Condon effortlessly breathes new life into Kiss of the Spider Woman for a new generation of queer cinema lovers and does justice to the vivid imagination of the author Manuel Puig on whose novel this film is based.

Kiss of the Spider Woman gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for lovers of queer musicals featuring exotic Argentinian dance numbers and a story that will dazzle viewers and give hope to anyone that is living under authoritarian repression because human desire always triumphs over political control.