Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film- Page 12
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#275
Posted: 1/26/25 at 1:51pm
He did this with Dreamgirls too, keeping all the non-diegetic singing out until "Family," a baffling choice.
Indeed it was. I saw DREAMGIRLS at a movie theatre when it was released and people started laughing when “Family” started and suddenly CC starts going into the song inside the dressing room. In another moment when Effie starts doing this random singing (forgot which scene), someone in the audience shouted “oh, no!” and the place erupted with laughter. Had Condon introduced the sung-thru dialogue earlier in the film, the audience would have understood this concept would be part of the film and already accepted it so it wouldn’t be a surprise anytime it happened.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#276
Posted: 1/26/25 at 2:24pm
Jordan Catalano said: "Oh wait it’s playing right now? So we can talk about it??"
Please DM me and tell me everything.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#277
Posted: 1/26/25 at 4:56pm
If Jordan has something to share, he really ought to share it with the whole class.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#278
Posted: 1/26/25 at 5:40pm
https://variety.com/2025/film/news/jennifer-lopez-kiss-of-the-spider-woman-oscar-buzz-sundance-1236286540/
“I was waiting my whole life to be able to do a real big MGM Hollywood musical, and I finally got to do it,” Lopez told Variety’s Matt Donnelly. “It was more [than I hoped]. Me and Diego [Luna] were on set and we’re dancing around and we’re singing and looking at each other and it’s like we don’t want to do anything else but musicals. Diego said that! Me too. I don’t want to do anything else.”
“This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I got into movies because of ‘West Side Story.’ I thought I was going to do Broadway. I wanted to do movies but I didn’t even think about records. I wanted to do musicals. I love musicals. My kids love musicals. My mother did. It was a dream fulfilled in having done the movie.”
Before Sundance, Lopez told Variety that working on “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was “probably my favorite movie experience,” adding: “It’s a film about how love transcends everything — the hardest circumstances, gender, social prejudices. Everything.”
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is one of the biggest movies for sale at Sundance this year.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#279
Posted: 1/26/25 at 9:37pm
https://x.com/vulture/status/1883685906760269970?s=46&t=7saXIZjJ_7gAb2-aEKbHkQ
Lopez discusses Bye Bye Birdie and Gypsy possibilities
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#280
Posted: 1/26/25 at 9:57pm
Per my spy at Sundance (a potential distributor who is not familiar with the original musical so cannot really compare them):
The only songs are ones that are a "fantasy," so evidently songs like "Dressing Them Up" are cut. Boo.
Tonatiuh is a good Molina, acting-wise.
The movie is "not bad" but - as I predicted - doesn't make much of a case for its existence.
That's all for now, I will try to get more details later.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#281
Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:15pm
jacobsnchz14 said: "https://x.com/vulture/status/1883685906760269970?s=46&t=7saXIZjJ_7gAb2-aEKbHkQ
Lopez discusses Bye Bye Birdie and Gypsy possibilities"
Um, her only mention of GYPSY is simply a toss away title referencing classic musicals. You guys hear unspoken words. Geez.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#282
Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:53pm
Mixed review from THR
Variety is positive
Deadline is positive
C+ from Indiewire
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#283
Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:55pm
Variety:
‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Review: Jennifer Lopez Provides Welcome Escape From Grim World of Argentine Prisoners
Director Bill Condon, who adapted Kander and Ebb with 'Chicago,' offers a fresh take on the duo’s 1992 musical, casting Diego Luna and stellar new face Tonatiuh as cell mates of seemingly different minds.
https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/kiss-of-the-spider-woman-review-jennifer-lopez-1236286799/
Hollywood Reporter
‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Review: Bill Condon’s Uneven Adaptation of the Kander and Ebb Musical Shines Brightest in Jennifer Lopez’s Dazzling Star Turn
Diego Luna plays a political prisoner during Argentina’s military dictatorship, with Tonatiuh as the gay cellmate who escapes harsh reality by retreating into movie fantasy.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/kiss-of-the-spider-woman-review-jennifer-lopez-diego-luna-tonatiuh-bill-condon-1236118593/
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#284
Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:57pm
IndieWire
‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Review: Jennifer Lopez Is an Out-of-this-World Diva in a Musical Movie That Struggles to Land Back on Earth
Sundance: Tonatiuh gives a breakout performance in Bill Condon's musical, but what's a star-making turn with such an un-cosmic production surrounding it?
https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/kiss-of-the-spider-woman-review-jennifer-lopez-1235088738/
Screen Daily:
‘Kiss Of The Spider-Woman’: Sundance Review
Bill Condon’s musical take on the exhausted Argentina-set drama
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/kiss-of-the-spider-woman-sundance-review/5201122.article
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#285
Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:59pm
Hmmm... From the Deadline review
"Condon made a key change from the book and musical where Molina was basically either telling the story of his love for the star, or ruminating on her many different films. Here he has created a single movie musical, Kiss Of The Spider Woman in which Ingrid as her character Aurora is caught in the feathery plot between two men, Kendall Nesbit and Armando before also becoming the title character. In essence the director has shot a gritty prison drama combined with an all glam and grand technicolored MGM musical of the sort we saw play out regularly in the 40’s and 50’s. It’s an inspired change and gives this take even more of a reason to exist as a piece of cinema, not just one transferred from stage to screen. To work, we have to become invested in both, and thanks in no small part to this extraordinarily talented cast we are.
To pull this off Condon had to jettison some of the show’s songs, mostly those in prison, but it is more than made up for , and in fact enhanced, by the dazzling movie musical on view with some 11 production numbers where it is Lopez, Lopez, Lopez who has the whole package – singing, dancing, acting – she has never gotten the opportunity to show on screen in this way. "
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#289
Posted: 1/26/25 at 11:51pm
If there’s now 11 songs then they’ve done work on it because there weren’t that many in the early screening. But that’s still more than half the score gutted by a director who clearly shouldn’t be directing musicals. Sorry but good performances can’t make up for another musical by Condon that’s afraid to be a musical. I really hated this movie.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#290
Posted: 1/27/25 at 12:38am
The film may well suck (I was no fan of Dreamgirls), but I don't get all this talk about how Condon must hate musicals because he cut the recititives from Dreamgirls or the non-fantasy-sequence songs from this. Did Cabaret demonstrate that Fosse hates musicals?
I'm pretty sure Condon likes, probably loves, musicals. He just doesn't know how to make them well.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#291
Posted: 1/27/25 at 12:40am
Well I liked it...
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#292
Posted: 1/27/25 at 12:41am
Maybe “likes” isn’t the right word. Maybe “respects” is better.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/27/21
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#293
Posted: 1/27/25 at 1:11am
obviously the cut I saw was months ago but it just didn't click for me, particularly the ending that ends like three different times, the movie feels kind of toothless and I wish it leaned into the darkness more, I also thought there were moments where Jennifer Lopez performance was just bad. Also cutting so much of the score feels like such a slap in the face to Kander and Ebb.
But if anything this is going to make a big star out of Tonatiuh who plays Molina and gives an incredible and captivating performance.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#294
Posted: 1/27/25 at 1:39am
It sounds like this movie has just as many musical numbers as the Chicago film, which also cut maybe around 7 or 8 songs?
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#295
Posted: 1/27/25 at 4:31am
That Indiewire review is one of the weirdest, bitchiest (I mean in a camp way) reviews I've read from them--it sounds like a gay over the top blog. So I enjoyed reading it until... " and the songs are unfortunately (sorry) hardly memorable "
It also seems odd to complain that the prison cell grows claustrophobic... Isn't it meant to?
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#296
Posted: 1/27/25 at 8:20am
joevitus said: "The film may well suck (I was no fan of Dreamgirls), but I don't get all this talk about how Condon must hate musicals because he cut the recititives from Dreamgirls or the non-fantasy-sequence songs from this. Did Cabaret demonstrate that Fosse hates musicals?
I'm pretty sure Condon likes, probably loves, musicals. He just doesn't know how to make them well."
When the In the Heights film was originally in development at Universal, Lin-Manuel Miranda told Broadway.com that it's more important to make the best movie possible, not just the best adaptation of a stage musical possible. He said "Sometimes that happens. They show up intact, and they're just dead onscreen. It's a real needle to thread." (@4:04)
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#297
Posted: 1/27/25 at 8:36am
I think the stage version of Chicago is fantastic, the movie version not so much ( I don’t understand the love ) the same with dreamgirls musical stunning film meh. I think Condon loves musicals and yes my film done of the sequences well, but doesn’t know what to do with the whole score.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#298
Posted: 1/27/25 at 9:02am
Positive review from Variety.
Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film#299
Posted: 1/27/25 at 9:13am
EricMontreal22 said: "That Indiewire review is one of the weirdest, bitchiest (I mean in a camp way) reviews I've read from them--it sounds like a gay over the top blog. So I enjoyed reading it until... " and the songs are unfortunately (sorry) hardly memorable "
It also seems odd to complain that the prison cell grows claustrophobic... Isn't it meant to?"
Yeah well, that's Indiewire for ya. They aren't exactly what I would call the most serious culture site out there.
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