We came to Park City, Utah, with huge appetites for the 41st annual Sundance Film Festival. But we’re trimming down our top picks to the very best of the best. Read More Entertainment
Tonatiuh, left, and Diego Luna in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
(Sundance Institute)
Bill Condon’s passionate adaptation of the Tony Award-winning prison musical is fueled by the power of opposites. In 1983 Argentina, a queer window dresser named Luis (breakout star Tonatiuh) is locked up with a dour political activist, Valentin (Diego Luna). Failing to find common conversational ground, Luis tells Valentin the plot of his favorite classic film — and by the power of imagination, both are soon tangoing with its leading lady, Ingrid (Jennifer Lopez). Romantic and cagey, tender and brutal, frivolous and grim, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is loaded with small acts of kindness, ones that pack as much of a wallop as its dance spectaculars. Fittingly for a story about fighting inhumanity with full-bodied self-expression, the choreography is shot in long, wide takes that capture every dip, shimmy and spin. Luis insists he can learn everything about a person by asking one question: What’s your favorite movie? At this year’s Sundance, this was definitely one of mine. — Amy Nicholson