Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film- Page 12

[BrodyFosse123]

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. 

[jacobsnchz14]

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. 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 1/26/25 at 4:56pm

If Jordan has something to share, he really ought to share it with the whole class.

 

[jacobsnchz14]

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.

[jacobsnchz14]

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

[The Distinctive Baritone]

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.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

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. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 1/26/25 at 10:53pm

Mixed review from THR

Variety is positive

Deadline is positive

C+ from Indiewire

[MemorableUserName]

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/

[MemorableUserName]

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

[MemorableUserName]

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. "

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/26/25 at 11:15pm

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/26/25 at 11:26pm

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/26/25 at 11:41pm

 

[Jordan Catalano]

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. 

[joevitus]

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. 

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 1/27/25 at 12:40am

Well I liked it...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/27/25 at 12:41am

Maybe “likes” isn’t the right word. Maybe “respects” is better. 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

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.

[jacobsnchz14]

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?

[EricMontreal22]

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?

Updated On: 1/27/25 at 04:31 AM

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

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)

 

[rosscoe(au)]

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. 

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 1/27/25 at 9:02am

Positive review from Variety. 

[KevinKlawitter]

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.