The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Kinky Boots
Comedy · Drama · Music · 2005
Charles Price may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business in Northampton, central England, but he never thought that he would take his father's place. Charles has a chance encounter with the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer Lola and everything changes.
Movie details
Kinky Boots
“How far would you go to save the family business?”
2005 Comedy · Drama · Music 1h 47m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.7 / 10
Community rating
Charles Price may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business in Northampton, central England, but he never thought that he would take his father's place. Charles has a chance encounter with the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer Lola and everything changes.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Kinky Boots?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Lady in the Van
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A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
Billy Elliot
Drama · 2000
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Feel the Beat
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After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Drama · 2013
In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.
Stage Mother
Comedy · 2020
A conservative church-choir director moves from Texas to San Francisco to run her deceased gay son's drag club.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Julian Jarrold
Written by
Geoff Deane · Tim Firth
Joel Edgerton
Charlie Price
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Lola/Simon
Sarah-Jane Potts
Lauren
Nick Frost
Don
Linda Bassett
Mel
Jemima Rooper
Nicola
Robert Pugh
Harold Price
Court is in session
Put Kinky Boots on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.