Kiss of the Spider Woman

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Leaburn O I was actually unaware until just now that this has just been remade as a musical. It’s a really good film with a superb plot and some excellent acting. What I find odd is that I had to go to YouTube to find a copy of the film to watch as no one streams it and the DVD costs a lot/is incredibly hard to find as it has barely been printed. Back in its day it probably caused a stir but it’s hardly controversial stuff these days. So strange that a post 1980 Best Picture nominee should have been reduced to such obscure status and so incredibly difficult to watch. Very much a good film that has aged well and deserves a wide audience. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/25 Full Review ermioni g Everyone was absolutely fabulous. One of Jennifer Lopezes best performances! She sounds amazing. Choreographies and stenography were on point! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/02/25 Full Review William L Kiss of the Spider Woman touches on interesting thoughts on escapism, confinement, and exploitation; of its two main characters, each social outcasts for different reasons, Hurt's Luis realizes the futility of complete immersion in fantasy and eventually confronts his denigration in the eyes of those around him as a result of his prominent homosexuality, while the initial cold and grounded Valentin (Juliá) recognizes the value of his happy memories as a brief respite from the cruelty of his imprisonment. That's all well and good, but there's also aspects of this Best Picture nominee (notable as the first independently-produced film to receive the nod) that are less substantial and actually form a bit of a drag on the film. Most prominently, it trades too heavily on Hurt's highly lauded performance; a film comes along and drops a protagonist in the audiences' laps (a gay man, in the years of the HIV/AIDS crisis) that has some eccentricities as well as the bare minimum of complexity, and critics lapped it up. Hurt himself is fine, but the character isn't exactly brimming with depth, with the big moral conundrum really boiling down to "maybe I shouldn't indirectly condemn an innocent man to save myself?" The film seems like it really hates to consider any sincere moral gray areas, and that makes it feel less like it dives into the suffering that it claims to focus on, and instead gives it a token nod on the way by. Considering Kiss of the Spider Woman in the context of film representation and the development of an indie presence in mainstream cinema, it's an important stepping stone. However, it's also a bit of a relic, and far from the profound think piece on outcasts and diversion that it has often been described as. (3/5) Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/03/21 Full Review Audience Member William Hurt and Raul Julia are fantastic. But I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to. Too boring and too much talking. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review steve d Hurt gives one of the greatest performances of all time. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review jona i Hits its sweet, poignant points. And the oral movies are good allusions. The performances are top-notch. But it feels more like a talky play. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Kiss of the Spider Woman

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