Kinky Boots

Julian Jarrold’s Kinky Boots is the Asheville Film Society’s second Chiwetel Ejiofor offering for October (his much praised 12 Years a Slave will open locally on Friday, Nov. 8). The movie has since been turned into a hit Broadway musical. Watching the film again, I’m inclined to think I sold it a little short in my original review. Ejiofor as drag queen Lola is definitely the best thing in the movie, but the movie itself is much better made and more creatively directed than I had recalled. The story centers around the failing shoe factory that Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton, much more appealing than in his other films) has inherited. His inspiration for saving the shoe business comes when he meets Lola and decides that there is perhaps a niche market in making sexy women’s footwear that can support the weight of drag queens. It turns out, however, that Charlie’s notions of sexy do not line up with Lola’s (he dismisses Charlie’s first attempt with, “Dear God, don’t tell me I have inspired something burgundy!”). But Lola is determined — even if it scandalizes the whole of Northampton in the process. Yes, there’s going to be a certain amount of “magic drag queen” who transforms things, but it nearly all works. And those little things that don’t are masked by Ejiofor’s incredible performance. (By the way, there really is a Kinky Boots Factory.)

The Asheville Film Society will screen Kinky Boots Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m. in Theater Six at The Carolina Asheville and will be hosted by Xpress movie critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther.