Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots (2005) is a British comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Julian Jarrold and starring Joel Edgerton and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The script is drawn from a real Northampton shoe factory that saved itself in the 1990s by pivoting to high-heeled boots for drag performers.

Charlie Price reluctantly takes over his late father's struggling business. The factory makes solid men's brogues — dependable, unfashionable, and basically unsellable. A chance encounter with Lola, a cabaret performer who keeps breaking heels that weren't built for her frame, opens an unexpected market. The two figure out that the factory's strengths are exactly what this niche desperately needs.

Ejiofor brings so much energy and specificity to Lola that he carries the film well past its feel-good formula. The story later became a Cyndi Lauper-scored Broadway musical in 2012. Stream Kinky Boots (2005) online on iFILM — a likeable underdog story that earns its ending.