Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025 film)

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a 2025 American musical drama film written for the screen and directed by Bill Condon. Based on the stage musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb, it is the second adaptation of the 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, following the 1985 Brazilian film adaptation. Jennifer Lopez stars in the titular role, alongside Diego Luna and Tonatiuh.
Kiss of the Spider Woman premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025, where it received generally positive reviews from critics.
Set in an Argentinian prison in 1981 during the Dirty War, Luis Molina, a gay hairdresser, is serving an eight-year sentence for allegedly corrupting a minor. To escape the horrors of his imprisonment, Molina imagines films starring a classic screen actress named Ingrid Luna, including a role of the spider woman, who kills her prey with a kiss. Molina's life is upended when a Marxist, Valentin Arregui Paz, is brought into his cell, and the two form an unlikely bond.
In December 2023, Jennifer Lopez was announced to star as Ingrid Luna in a film adaptation of the musical with Bill Condon directing from his own screenplay. The independently-financed production was executive produced by Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina through their Nuyorican Productions banner, while Barry Josephson, Tom Kirdahy and Greg Yolen served as producers. Choreographer Sergio Trujillo and co-choreographer Brandon Bieber created the dance sequences throughout. Christopher Scott choreographed “Gimme Love.” Upon the announcement, a casting call opened for an unknown to play the role of Molina. In March 2024, dancer Tony Dovolani announced on his Instagram page that he had joined the cast as a mob boss. In April, it was announced that Diego Luna and Tonatiuh had joined the cast as Valentin Arregui and Luis Molina, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon boarding the project as executive producers through the Artists Equity banner. Luna also served as an executive producer. Colleen Atwood served as costume designer.
On March 20, 2024, Lopez announced that production on the film had begun, with the intention to have a fast turnaround time so she can launch her This Is Me... Live tour on June 26, which was later cancelled on May 31. Principal photography began in New Jersey on March 21, 2024. On May 10, Lopez confirmed on Live with Kelly and Mark that she completed filming on her scenes and that she lost weight for the role of Aurora, describing the shoot as "equal parts exhilarating and exhausting". Production wrapped on June 16, 2024.
The film is dedicated to the memories of Ebb (who died in 2004), McNally (who died in 2020 from COVID-19) and Chita Rivera (who originated the title role on stage and died in 2024).
In adapting the musical to the screen, Condon cited Bob Fosse's 1972 film adaptation of another Kander and Ebb musical, Cabaret, as a source of inspiration. This resulted in cutting almost every song set in reality at the prison Molina and Arregui are held at (including "Dressing Them Up" and "The Day After That") and only keeping the ones set in the "fantasies" Molina comes up with, in order to create a stark contrast between the grittiness of prison life in Argentina during the Dirty War and the Technicolor lavishness and beauty of a classic MGM musical film. As a result, the aspect ratio also shifts between the 1.85∶1 format during the prison scenes and the 1.33∶1 format during the fantasy sequences.
Kiss of the Spider Woman premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025, marking Condon's first film premiere at the festival since Gods and Monsters (1998), and received a standing ovation from the audience, which reportedly left Lopez in tears. It later held additional screenings at the festival, with all showings of the film being sold-out in advance of the premiere. In February 2025, AGC Studios boarded onto the film to handle international sales to buyers at the 2025 European Film Market, while William Morris Endeavor and CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. sales. In March 2025, Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment were reportedly in final talks to acquire North American distribution rights to the film; the deal closed not long after, with Mickey Liddell joining the executive producing team, alongside plans for a wide theatrical awards season release sometime in fall that year. Searchlight Pictures and Mubi also expressed interest in the rights a month prior to Lionsgate's purchase.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 39 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Fionnuala Halligan of Screendaily lamented that despite the "committed" and "sincere" cast, "it's disappointing that what they are peddling has become so distorted". Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood wrote about a "stunning new film adaptation" in which Condon demonstrates that the musical genre is "still fresh and alive and relevant even on the budget of independent filmmaking".
David Rooney [de] of The Hollywood Reporter delivered as a bottom line the following assessment: "entertaining, even if it soars only intermittently". Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire gave the film a 'C+' rating, wondering what's a "star-making performance [Tonatiuh's] when the package surrounding the actor is otherwise so ordinary and un-cosmic?" Peter Debruge [de] of Variety praised how Condon gives Tonatiuh his Jennifer Hudson moment in "She's a Woman".