Reviewed: ‘Kiss of The Spider Woman,’ ‘Anemone,’ ‘The Lost Bus’ and ‘Tron: Ares’ in theaters and streaming

‘Kiss of The Spider Woman’ (2025)

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a story told many times before. Originally a novel by the Argentine author Manuel Puig, it has since been adapted into a stage play, an Academy Award-winning 1985 film starring Raul Julia and William Hurt, a 1993 Broadway musical with songs by Kander and Ebb, and, now, a new movie adaptation of the musical from “Dreamgirls” (2006) director Bill Condon. This is perhaps fitting for a story about the ways in which fiction affects our lives and, in turn, how our own experiences can shape our interpretation of a story. Set in Argentina during the political turmoil of the early 1980s, this new “Spider Woman” stars Diego Luna (from TV’s “Andor”) as Valentin, a political dissident locked in a dungeonlike prison. His unlikely cellmate is Molina (Tonatiuh, “Carry-On”), a queer but otherwise apolitical window-dresser booked for public indecency. Molina has been planted secretly to extract information from Valentin in exchange for a possible early release, but the pair begins to form a bond thanks to Molina’s knack for mental escape; a lover of classic Hollywood, Molina regales Valentin with scenes from his favorite movie star, played in dazzling musical fantasy sequences by the one and only Jennifer Lopez.

Unlike most contemporary movie musicals, which almost apologize for their form with flashy camerawork and quick-fire editing, “Spider Woman” embraces its MGM roots; the colors in the dream sequences pop (in contrast to the dank confines of the prison) and Condon follows Fred Astaire’s axiom that dance numbers should be filmed in long takes with the performers’ full bodies in frame. Lopez is deployed expertly in a true pop-star performance, and Luna is suitably dashing as both the fiery revolutionary and Lopez’s Latin-lover leading man. But the real discovery here is Tonatiuh, who is absolutely magnetic as the gender-fluid Molina. It’s a tricky role requiring ridiculous humor and utter heartbreak, and Tonatiuh dances across the high wire as easily as Molina’s Hollywood dream avatar. At more than two hours, “Spider Woman” comes close to wearing out its welcome (unlike a Broadway musical, it lacks the benefit of an intermission), and some sequences, such as a lengthy and unpleasant scene involving soiled drawers, could do to be trimmed. But it remains a winning and soulful update of a classic film – a story that, like the classics on Molina’s posters, continues to captivate. (Oscar Goff)

At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge, and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.

‘Anemone’ (2025)

A deeply engrossing, if uneven, sojourn into the realm of reckoning and redemption. The ace in the hole here would be Daniel Day-Lewis, who came out of retirement (in 2017, with the release of “Phantom Thread,” he implied it would be his last film before the camera) to make this deeply emotionally portrait with his writer-director son Ronan in his filmmaking debut. The senior Day-Lewis co-wrote the script, but from the overall scrumptious look and intensity, Ronan is an up-and-comer to watch. The title refers to the delicate and sensitive flower that closes up when touched and is evocative of Day-Lewis’ Ray, who has dropped out of society and is living off the grid in the woods of Northern England. For nearly 20 years, his brother Jem (Sean Bean) has been rearing Ray’s son Brian (Samuel Bottomley, “How to Have Sex”) after marrying Ray’s former lover, Nessa (Samantha Morton). In short, Jem stepped in when Ray stepped out  on the pregnant Nessa; Jem ventures out to find Ray now because Brian is struggling. To say why Ray has gone into isolation wouldn’t be a spoiler, but it’s besides the point – involving Ireland’s violent Troubles, with the present-day of “Anemone” set in the early to mid-1990s. Much of the early segments of the film are long, speechless moments between Jem and Ray in the lush, deep forest that offers access to a remote beach and nearby stream. The intensity that defined Day-Lewis and earned him three Best Actor Oscars (the only male lead to do so; Katherine Hepburn notched four) is on full display in the red flicker of his cottage’s fireplace as he delivers two big soliloquies that give us Ray’s “why.” Cutbacks to Nessa and Brian in a distant working-class borough fill out the picture, and Bean and his character know the landscape and their place in it. The film, shot by Ben Fordesman (“Love Lies Bleeding,” “Out of Darkness”) and scored by Bobby Krlic, is a stunning fusion of sound and image – intimate yet expansive with deep eerie chords that conjure wonderment and a haunting sense of foreboding. Not all of it melds, yet it rivets in nearly every frame. (Tom Meek)

At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge; Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square; and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.

‘The Lost Bus’ (2025)

Those terrible wildfires – Eaton and Palisades – that torched Los Angeles this year are still seared in our collective minds with images of people fleeing their homes amid smoke and flame with nowhere to go. More devastating in terms of acres burned and fatalities (85 versus 31) was the Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County seven years ago. That fire, and a heroic effort to save 22 trapped school children, are the subject of the latest drama-thriller from Paul Greengrass, the plucky director who kicked ass with three “Jason Bourne” flicks and made “United 93” (2006), the definitive 9/11 film, which put you in an aisle seat aboard the doomed plane. Greengrass brings all that immersive experience to a town ablaze. The visual effects of the smoke and flames closing in on fleeing cars struck in gridlock are so visceral your throat can practically taste the acrid, choking smoke. The heart of the film is a scruffy Matthew McConaughey as Kevin McKay, a single father trying to make ends meet as a fill-in school bus driver. He can’t get enough shifts to cover his bills, and his dispatcher (a highly critical Ashlie Atkinson) doesn’t much like him or care for his excuses about dropping off medicine for his ailing son (McConaughey’s real-life son, Levi). Additional complications come in the form of a series of calls from McKay’s ex telling him she’s on her way out of town with her new beau and can’t help with their son, and his mother (McConaughey’s real-life mom, Kay – it’s a family affair), with news that his estranged father is near death and this could be his chance for a reunion and closure. As the fire takes hold and begins to spread, McKay is in a big, boxy bus caught in the stream of fleeing traffic as the gravity of the situation transforms a calm exodus into a bumper-grinding panic. Then comes a call – and a shot at redemption – in which McKay is asked to go to a nearby elementary school to evacuate children whose parents aren’t able to fetch them. One teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrara) – married, with her own family – tags along to help keep the kids calm and safe. McKay and Ludwig often look a bit like Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in “Speed” (1994), with the look of concern ever etched upon their face as one negative twist after another confronts them. But this is no Hollywood fantasy. The chemistry between McConaughey and Ferrara, as well as the perfectly meted backstory of McKay’s domestic and financial woes, deepen instead of veering into Lifetime maudlinness. The stakes go higher after the bus breaks from the main traffic flow – where cars ahead and behind erupt regularly into flames – to go to the designated drop-off point. Of course, when they get there it’s abandoned and overrun by flames, and with communication down, no one knows where the bus is. The cause of the fire was an electrical wire mishap during extreme drought conditions; energy company Pacific Gas and Electric was found guilty of 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and ordered to pay $16.5 billion in damages. (The court proceedings are not part of the movie, but an end note.) “The Lost Bus” is a gripping tale of heroism and tragedy that shouldn’t have to be told. (Tom Meek)

On Apple TV+.

‘Tron: Ares’ (2025)

“Tron: Ares,” the latest entry in the long-running Disney sci-fi series takes place more than 40 years after the oh-so-’80s original starring Jeff Bridges as programmer Kevin Flynn – still lost in the machine, his video game empire Encom entrusted to coding whiz Eve Kim (Greta Lee, “Past Lives”). Rival company Dillinger is now run by Julian (Evan Peters, TV’s “American Horror Story”), grandson of David Warner’s original villain, and his mother, Elisabeth (Gillian Anderson, “The X-Files”). Eve is on the cusp of cracking the Permanence Code, which would allow computer-generated life to exist in the real world for more than 30 minutes; Julian, of course, is bent on stealing it, and designs cyberwarriors Ares and Athena (Jared Leto and Jodie Turner-Smith) to do so. Ares, however, develops a conscience after reading Eve’s profile and opts to use his limited time in the physical realm to help her escape.

As a franchise, “Tron” is best understood as a delivery system for neon-lit CG effects and cutting-edge electronic music. Trent Reznor, operating under his nom de rock Nine Inch Nails, is a perfect fit as composer, his pulsing rhythms hypnotic when blasted through an Imax sound system. The visuals are equally inspired. In one delightful sequence, a hacker attack is presented as a platoon of tiny soldiers marching into a glistening cyber-palace. Later, in the film’s most inventive sequence, Ares enters Bridges’ original computer, wherein the graphics revert to clunky ’80s vintage. Visually, “Tron” has always owed a debt to the silent cinema of Fritz Lang and the surreal comics of Jean “Mœbius” Giraud; in a perfect world, these films would be allowed to play out without dialogue and rely purely on aesthetics.

Of course, this being a modern blockbuster, there must be a human story. Much of the cast is well chosen: Lee is one of our most likable working actresses, Turner-Smith is suitably imperious and Peters and Anderson are old hands at making pulp sing. Unfortunately, all are in service of Leto, an actor whose pretentious screen presence and odious (alleged) offscreen behavior have pushed him far past his sell-by date. Leto lacks the daffy charisma necessary for the material, and his dialog thuds to the floor. The silver lining is that Leto is so inert that, despite being the lead, he’s fairly easy to ignore. If one is able to look past the rote human (and cyborg) interactions, they’re left with a pretty great Nine Inch Nails planetarium laser show, and there are far worse ways than that to spend an afternoon. (Oscar Goff)

At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge; Apple Cinemas Cambridge, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge Highlands near Alewife and Fresh Pond; and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.

Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.

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