Sundance 2025: Tonatiuh Shines Bright in ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
by Alex Billington
February 4, 2025
“Sooner or later, you’re certain to meet, in the bedroom, the parlor or even the street… There’s no place on earth, you’re likely to miss her kiss.” The moment this film ended I knew this performance was one of the best of the festival. But now that I’m finally writing this review after having seen a grand total of 54 films at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival line-up, I feel confident in saying – Tonatiuh gives the best performance in any film at the festival. This 2025 update on Kiss of the Spider Woman is a modern re-imaginging of this iconic story from South America, which was turned into a big Broadway musical in the early 1990s. It is the second film adaption of the 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, following the 1985 Brazilian film adaptation. Director Bill Condon, who’s no stranger to big musicals having made Dreamgirls before, gives this story new life on the big screen and best of all gives us three ravishing performances to celebrate. I admit it’s a strange film to premiere at a festival like Sundance which usually only shows indies and first-time features, but I’m very happy I had the chance to experience the premiere at this fest anyway.
Note: I have not seen the musical or the previous film adaptation, this is my first encounter with this story. This new version of Kiss of the Spider Woman is both written and directed by the American filmmaker Bill Condon; he was previously nominated for an Academy Award for writing the musical Chicago (in 2002) and won an Academy Award for writing Gods and Monsters (in 1998). Set in an Argentinian prison in 1981 during the Dirty War, this new film spends most of its time in the prison, jumping into the opera side of the story occasionally for lavish musical numbers. The titular “Kiss of the Spider Woman” extravagant story is a fictional movie that the main character Molina adores, and recounts in full to his cellmate Valentín to help pass the time and entertain him. Queer actor Tonatiuh (also known as Tonatiuh Elizarraraz) is given his first major lead role as Molina, a gay window dresser who is thrown in prison by the authoritarian regime in Argentina. His cellmate just so happens to be an important revolutionary named Valentin, played by Diego Luna, but this doesn’t mean much to Molina. The prison warden tries to convince him to help get info out of Valentin, but instead they become intimate & grow much closer the more time they spend together there.
As much as her fans love to hype her up, Jennifer Lopez isn’t the lead character and only has a supporting role in this Kiss of the Spider Woman. Lopez appears in the fantastic, vivid sequences of the musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman that Molina tells Valentin about. She plays an actress named Ingrid Luna, who stars as two characters – Aurora, the main beauty in this story, and the actual “Spider Woman” whom takes a sacrifice every few years and kills him with a kiss. All of the dance scenes and her singing are magnificent, but I couldn’t help notice that all of the singing was recorded after in the studio and synced – no real singing on set in this one. The constant switching between the garish, grimy, grey prison where Molina & Valentin reside, and the gorgeous, vibrant, spectacular musical scenes might bother some viewers. As someone who loves musicals, it didn’t bother me. It’s actually refreshing to jump back and forth between them, almost as a reminder that even when you’re stuck in a horrible, monotonous place you can still use your imagination to dream of bright, beautiful, better days. Lopez is entirely ravishing to watch, but Luna and Tonatiuh steal her thunder with even better performances in their roles (they also appear as characters in the musical portion).
At its core, Kiss of the Spider Woman is an empowering & gripping story of love, self-expression, empathy, and understanding, along with touching upon themes related to being a revolutionary and doing whatever it takes to make a difference in the world. It is an important, and unforgettable, LGBTQ story for this modern day & age. Even though it’s set decades ago in a whole other country, their need for freedom to express who they really are without being inhibited by oppression is timeless – but also just as meaningful today as ever. Some will prefer the colorful musical scenes with exuberant dancing & amusing characters galore; others will prefer the intimacy of the prison where Molina & Valentín grow closer through honest conversation. It gets a bit tedious in the middle, but moves on to become so powerful by the end. And above all else, this film introduces the world to Tonatiuh, who is going to have an amazing career after this (CAA already signed him a few months ago). I am an instant fan now, touched by his tenderness and his honesty, shaken up by his imagination and optimism, and soothed by his compassionate care and concern (for Valentin). This film is absolutely worth seeing just to watch Tonatiuh blossom and make his mark on cinema forever. Bravo, bravo.
Alex’s Sundance 2025 Rating: 8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
 |
Source link