Jennifer Lopez with Photographers (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Bailey Pennick
“I don’t think there’s a better way to bring a film into the world than to premiere it at Sundance,” says Bill Condon. The writer-director behind behemoths like Dreamgirls and Kinsey knows a thing or two about opening a film, but coming to the 2025 Sundance Film Festival after premiering Gods and Monsters here 27 years ago proves that he knows this yearly gathering is special. And because of that trust between artists and audiences at Sundance, Condon is ready to premiere his latest film — Kiss of the Spider Woman — an unbelievably ambitious movie musical set in 1981 that weaves storylines about Argentina’s Dirty War, the history of the old-school Hollywood studio system, trans rights, and a tender love story all into one, complete with 11 musical numbers.
Right as the lights are about to dim, Condon says he doesn’t want to make a speech but rather read a quote from a recent speech he’s heard. “‘As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,’” he says, directly repeating a line from the Presidential Inauguration, which took place only five days ago. The full Eccles Theatre is silent as he folds up the small piece of paper he had with those words on it. “That’s a sentiment, I think you’ll see, that this movie has a different point of view on.” The crowd collectively exhales and cheers.
That drop-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling, being face to face with a harsh and cruel reality, is present throughout Kiss of the Spider Woman. The film strategically cuts back and forth between Technicolor cinema dreams and the deadly Argentinian prison, a brutal world in which Molina (a rewarding breakout performance by Tonatiuh) is regularly beaten and called a degenerate — or worse — for being a feminine-presenting gay man locked in prison for public indecency. His cellmate Valentín (a brooding, grounded Diego Luna) reinforces hurtful rhetoric that Molina should toughen up and act like a man, even when he’s trying to be kind. This world is awful, so why wouldn’t Molina want to escape into his silver screen memories of his favorite film star?
Jennifer Lopez is that Star with a capital-S, in her role as Ingrid Luna, a ’50s cinema diva whose cinematic specialty seems to be that age old trope of no-nonsense tough career woman who can’t find time for love but then suddenly does before credits roll. Her moxie and longing are imprinted on Molina’s brain, allowing him to recount every line, song, and kick ball change after lights-out. Condon’s mastery at sweeping set piece musical numbers is on full display in Kiss with the original songs from the 1993 Broadway musical. The segments are fun, the movie-within-the-movie is bright and spectacular, but there’s something darker that continues to lurk in the background of every number.
“Where You Are” is the pinnacle of this uneasy blending of Molina’s real-world horrors and show-stopping melodies. By far the biggest showcase of Lopez’s talents (receiving a rare mid-movie round of applause), the song is full of vibrancy and life, but the lyrics bring that drop-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling again.
You’ve got to learn how not to be
Where you are
The more you face reality, the more you scar
So close your eyes and you’ll become a movie star
Why must you stay where you are?
You’ve got to learn how not to see
What you’ve seen
The slice of hell you call your life
Is harsh and mean
So why not lie beside me on a movie screen
Why must you see what you’ve seen?
“It’s the fantasy and the escapism,” Lopez says during the post-premiere discussion, about what drew her to the project. “I think the thing about the movie that I love the most is that it tells of the importance of storytelling. How it can help you get through the day, and how it helps all of us. Films help all of us kind of get through the hardest times in our lives, just like music. That’s why movie musicals are so important.” Condon agrees wholeheartedly with his lead (“Well I did write that line, ‘I pity people who hate musicals!’”).
While the delight of the movie musical is undeniable, what makes the story of Molina and Valentín so enduring and powerful? “[This film is about] the importance of love and just seeing each other as human beings, and how love can shorten the gap of any divide between people,” continues Lopez. “If we could just look at each other, like [Bill] was saying, as individuals, as people, as human beings, and not worry about who you like, who you don’t like, what your political beliefs are — it doesn’t matter! There’s another human on the other side of you and you will find something in common with them, and it’s that you are both human and you both have a heart. That to me is something that was so important when I read the movie and why I wanted to be part of it.”
