{"id":2089043,"date":"2025-10-14T00:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2089043"},"modified":"2025-10-14T00:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:52:24","slug":"j-los-new-film-is-a-movie-musical-miracle-impossible-to-pull-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/j-los-new-film-is-a-movie-musical-miracle-impossible-to-pull-off\/","title":{"rendered":"J.Lo\u2019s New Film Is a Movie Musical Miracle Impossible to Pull Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Spiders are among the most expeditious species on Earth.<\/p>\n

Those delicate, ornate, expertly crafted webs\u2014have you ever stopped to admire them?\u2014they can be whipped up in about 60 minutes. In the time it took me to decide where to order a sandwich from for lunch, a spider has woven a work of art that is also a home\u2026and a trap. It\u2019s beautiful and it\u2019s sinister.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting then, that Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/i><\/a> had to be made at a spider\u2019s pace\u2014and its attention to art.<\/p>\n

Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/i> is a movie musical starring Jennifer Lopez<\/a>, in a part made famous by Broadway icon Chita Rivera. It is its own unique, dangerous tapestry: a persecuted gender-non-conforming window dresser named Molina (played exquisitely in this production by rising star Tonaituh) is imprisoned alongside a dissident (Diego Luna\u2019s Valentin) protesting a fascist regime in Argentina during the Dirty War.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/span><\/div>\n

Bill Condon, Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh attend the <\/p>\n

During their intimate incarceration, Molina embodies the proof of how much culture matters during times of conflict; he also recounts the film history of his favorite actress and her iconic roles, which come to life in movie-within-a-movie scenes anchored by Lopez.<\/p>\n

She twists, twirls, and tangos her way through no less than 11 production numbers. The film is directed by Bill Condon, the movie-musical visionary behind Dreamgirls<\/i>, and he frames each sequence like a classic MGM Golden Age film. Lopez and Tonatiuh\u2014a legend and a breakout star\u2014execute the numbers the way that they would have at the time, in long takes that depict every bit of choreography, from a flick of the ankle to a wink at the camera.<\/p>\n

More remarkable, especially once you see those numbers on the big screen, is that this is an independent film, on an independent budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this is not going to have the budget of a Beauty and the Beast <\/i>or Wicked<\/i>. It\u2019s not going to have the budget of Dreamgirls<\/i>,\u201d Condon tells me in a Zoom interview ahead of the Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/i> release. \u201cNobody likes a budget musical. They don\u2019t work, you know? So then I thought, those are two hour-and-a-half-hour movies. This is a two-hour movie, so let\u2019s be lavish and full tilt at the musical. And then make this very inexpensive prison movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tonatiuh<\/span><\/div>\n

Tonatiuh and Diego Luna in ‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’. \/ Roadside Attractions<\/p>\n

So he pulled off something miraculous, and also, by virtue of the effort, coincidentally timely.<\/p>\n

Because of the talent and work ethic of Lopez, he was able to film 11 full-scale production numbers in 17 days\u2014if you\u2019ve ever questioned Lopez\u2019s talent, my god<\/i>, watch her in this film.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a scene when Lopez is acting against herself in the film, that Condon giggles remembering that during an early screening, a friend turned to him and said, \u201cGay heads are going to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a multiple-detonation event. There\u2019s also a scene that is the climax of the movie, in which Lopez is belting out the title song of the musical, while a gay sex scene is happening. \u201cWere you the one who said, \u2018She\u2019s wailing while they\u2019re nailing each other?\u2019\u201d Condon asks. Yes, I have described the iconic sequence that way.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/span><\/div>\n

Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh in ‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’. \/ Roadside Attractions<\/p>\n

But those lavish, truly spellbinding music sequences are juxtaposed against Molina and Valentin\u2019s life in their prison cell, oppressed, desperate for connection, and enraged enough for a revolution. It\u2019s a story that validates a queer experience, that centers the Latin experience, and underscores the risk involved in standing against an authoritarian regime that wants to take those experiences away\u2014not to mention, basic human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at someone like Jennifer, who\u2019s been quite literally on the world stage for so many years and Diego to do the same, to say these kinds of messaging, it\u2019s fascinating that maybe there is this level of Latin excellence that has to exist because we don\u2019t get an opportunity to fail,\u201d Toniatiuh tells me.<\/p>\n

Toniatiuh is the essential thread of this spider web.<\/p>\n

He was, he tells me, literally the last person auditioned to play Molina after a casting search of thousands; William Hurt won an Oscar for playing the part in the 1985 movie.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/span><\/div>\n

Jennifer Lopez \/ Roadside Attractions<\/p>\n

During what is essentially considered Hollywood\u2019s extended vacation, where no one answers an email, he was asked to submit a self-tape audition. Next thing he knew, he was learning Bob Fosse-esque choreography, performing for the director of Dreamgirls, <\/i>and doing a chemistry read with Diego Luna.<\/p>\n

\u201cMolina is the emotional center of the movie, but then it became a process because obviously it was about chemistry with Diego. But more than that, we were casting two parts,\u201d Condon says.<\/p>\n

Toniatiuh doesn\u2019t just play Molina in the tender and brutal prison scenes opposite Luna\u2019s Valentin. He appears in the movie-within-a-movie fantasy sequences, where he sings, dances, and swoons as a classic Hollywood leading man opposite Lopez.<\/p>\n

\"Tonatiuh<\/span><\/div>\n

Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez in ‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’. \/ Roadside Attractions<\/p>\n

\u201cTo not just do one movie, but two, a classic Hollywood 1940s-style musical, as well as a naturalistic drama, two-hand play, essentially,\u201d says Toniatiuh, still grappling with his leading-man debut. \u201cTo tell a character that was a classic, Gene Kelly, Errol Flynn, Montgomery Clift silhouette, and then a genderless expression like Molina, who is so, um, full of life and nerve. It was dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Condon laughs that he\u2019s glad no one before him made this musical into a movie, so he could put his stamp on it. But he also earnestly explains why he thinks it clicks\u2014echoing somewhat of a mission statement he\u2019s had his entire career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMolina says, \u2018Call a kitsch, call it camp. I don\u2019t care. I love it.\u2019 To me, that\u2019s something I think I\u2019ve said in real life a number of times,\u201d Condon says. \u201cI could almost use it as an occasional defense for some of the movies I\u2019ve made too. I put it into Mo\u2019s mouth, some of the defense of a certain kind of filmmaking that I adore.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a web he weaves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiders are among the most expeditious species on Earth. Those delicate, ornate, expertly crafted webs\u2014have you ever stopped to admire them?\u2014they can be whipped up in about 60 minutes. In the time it took me to decide where to order a sandwich from for lunch, a spider has woven a work of art that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2089044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[350223,345899,387184,22265,393752],"class_list":["post-2089043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bill-condon","tag-diego-luna","tag-film-history","tag-jennifer-lopez","tag-production-numbers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/JLos-New-Film-Is-a-Movie-Musical-Miracle-Impossible-to.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2089043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089045,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089043\/revisions\/2089045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2089044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2089043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2089043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2089043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}