My critical efforts to never judge a film before seeing it are most challenged by remakes of movies I adore. Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” is a wonderful comedy, and Hector Babenco’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was a powerful filmgoing experience for me as a young man. I once discussed why a film should be remade with a Hollywood producer who accused me of hating all of them, and I offered my belief that a remake needs to have a different approach (“The Thing,” for example) or improve on mediocre source material. Both of these Sundance remakes were stepping into some pretty big shoes to justify their existence. The good news is that they do, more or less, even if neither will supplant their predecessor in film history.
To be fair, Andrew Ahn’s take on “The Wedding Banquet” sometimes feels like a completely different film. After all, as he noted in his Sundance introduction, one couldn’t really remake a movie about a sham marriage to hide a gay couple in a modern time when gay marriage is legal. Ahn has refashioned the spirit of Lee’s film to make a story that’s more about a makeshift family than anything else, crafting a series of misunderstandings that can sometimes feel a bit sitcomish but doing so in a way that’s just nimble enough to be entertaining.
“The Wedding Banquet” centers two couples: Chris (Bowen Yang) & Min (Han Gi-chan) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) & Lee (Lily Gladstone). In a sort of “Strangers on a Train” twist of fate, the couples end up needing something from each other when Lee’s second attempt at IVF doesn’t take. Min comes from a very wealthy family and can give Lee & Angela the money for the next treatment, but they propose that Angela & Min get married so that he can get a green card and stay in the country. When Min’s grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung of “Minari”) comes to the U.S. to throw a lavish wedding for her grandson, a comedy of errors and misunderstandings ensues, although not exactly in the way you’d expect. One of Ahn’s smartest choices was to subvert the traditional roles of the homophobic, archaic elders, giving Youn her own arc and paralleling it with that of Angela’s mother, played perfectly by Joan Chen. Youn and Chen are phenomenal here, grounding “The Wedding Banquet” every time it threatens to spin off and become just another disposable comedy on a streaming service, which it does pretty often.
Most people come to a “wacky couples comedy” like “The Wedding Banquet” willing to suspend criticisms of silly misunderstandings, emotional overreactions, and fallout from overheard conversations. The structure of Ahn’s plotting frustrated me, and he doesn’t quite know how to give his film visual language beyond a standard comedy. He also basically sidelines his Oscar nominee, pushing Gladstone out of the movie for much of the second half. While Yang is a very likable comedic performer, he can’t quite land the dramatic heft of his role.
And yet every time “The Wedding Banquet” threatens to go rotten, Youn and Chen make a choice that remind you how good they are. Ahn works with them to take parts that could have been archetypal—the conservative elders that need to be overcome to find happiness—to make them genuine in a way that grounds the entire film. It’s hard to overstate the importance of that backdrop, allowing the actors of the younger generation to do the silly stuff in a world that feels more three-dimensional.
There’s a similar “performance overcomes craft” aspect to Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” but it’s not a supporting one in this case. For Condon’s adaptation of the hit musical adaptation of the beloved book, it’s the lead: A stunning newcomer named Tonatiuh, who carries this film with an emotional, physical performance that justifies its existence by itself. There are other effective elements in the new “Kiss,” including supporting turns from Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez. Still, Condon’s direction often works against what’s good about this version, reminding one how good he can be with performers but how much his vision still lacks when it comes to things like framing, blocking, lighting, etc.
In a time of great upheaval, when it feels like honest resistance is needed and gender identity is being attacked, some people will have a very personal response to “Spider Woman” that will smother any criticisms about its lack of visual language, but that doesn’t mean this musical couldn’t have been better.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” opens with Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) being thrown in a cell during the height of the Dirty War in Argentina in 1981. His cellmate is a powerful figure in the resistance named Valentin (Luna), who first seems annoyed by the flamboyant Molina, even as his new friend attempts to provide an escape from their dire reality by recounting his favorite film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring the legendary Ingrid Luna (Lopez).
Condon, who also adapted the stage musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb, struggles to blend the two halves of his version of this oft-told tale, even as the stories of the movie-within-a-movie and the reality of Molina & Valentin intersect. Condon attempts to craft a pastiche of classic movie musical styles, but the first few numbers fall flat due to choreography and camera choices before finally settling into a groove after the excellent “Where You Are.”
Being unfamiliar with the Broadway show, it’s also possible that the songs just get more consistent, but the staging of them also improves as the film goes along with a couple numbers humming with such energy that the Sundance audience applauded on their completion. Say what you will about her acting chops, Lopez is an increasingly rare kind of movie star, the kind that can hold a camera with sheer star power alone, making her perfect for this part.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is about that which inspires us not just to survival but action. Molina uses the movies not just to escape but to keep him and Valentin alive, bridging the gap between the two very different men in a way that eventually leads both to love and resistance. It’s a moving, powerful piece of fiction, and that foundation remains largely intact, although Condon is allowed to dig into the dynamics of the passion between these characters in a manner that the ‘80s version could not.
It helps a great deal that he cast a vulnerable performer like Tonatiuhand that Luna and Lopez understand how to truly support their lead, ceding the spotlight to the real center of this piece as often as they do. All three of them are good, even as they’re stymied by Condon’s choices—numerous times, the camera is just in the wrong place, either filming a cell scene from afar as if it’s on a stage instead of doing anything to enhance claustrophobia/tension or cutting off feet in a dance number.
Through it all, the power of the source material (both the book and award-winning musical) and trifecta of performers carry the day. Sometimes all it takes to justify the existence of a remake is finding the right people to do it.
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