Most American audiences know Chiwetel from his small part in Love Actually; he played the groom to Keira Knightley's blinding ultra-white toothy smile. Americans who don't know him from that probably know him from playing the antagonist in Serenity, where he almost single-handedly managed to outshine Nathan Fillion and crew. He played the lead in last year's Sundance hit Kinky Boots, where he literally walked away with the entire film. If you haven't seen Kinky Boots, I can't recommend it enough, last year I found myself liking it despite the predictable storyline and the hit-you-over-the-head message. This guy has so much charisma that he should be marketing and selling what's left over.

Although classically trained as a Shakespearean actor in the UK, his first film role was in Spielberg's 1997 Amistad. Since then he's also been seen in Dirty Pretty Things, She Hate Me, Four Brothers and Melinda and Melinda. He had four major film roles in 2005, and so far this year he's been in both Inside Man and Children of Men, which isn't too shabby. He has four big projects lined up in 2007, including two that pair him with Don Cheadle, and he can be seen in HBO's Tsunami: The Aftermath on Sunday, December 10.

Chiwetel ("Chewie," to his friends and Han Solo) is one of those actors who can be difficult to describe. He really has a commanding screen presence, but he doesn't have the forced "I'm the star!" quality of someone like Russell Crowe. He's more quiet and imposing without chewing up the scenery. He's played both a a cross-dressing drag queen (is that redundant? Like, a drag queen who dresses like a man? I think I just confused myself) and an interstellar bounty hunter in equally convincing and different manners. It's hard to be the Scene Stealer when you're not someone who tries to completely fill the screen with your presence, like Alan Rickman and Parker Posey do pretty well, but Chiwetel (I know that sounds like I'm on a first-name basis with the guy, but it sounded better than typing Ejiofor over and over) pulls it off in every role he's been in so far. Here's hoping he'll keep his streak running.

Besides, when's the last time we've been rooting for someone named Chewie that wasn't covered in fur?

Recent Theatricals

Dead Man's Shoes (Magnolia) -- A fantastic revenge thriller from British director Shane Meadows. (audio commentary, featurette, deleted scene, alternate ending)

District B13 (Magnolia) -- One of the craziest action flicks in years, and a whole lot of fun. (mini-doco, extended fight scene, blooper reel)

Kinky Boots (Miramax) -- Yet another drag queen shoe store musical comedy from the UK. (audio commentary, two deleted scenes, two featurettes)

United 93 (Universal) -- A fine film (with an inevitably harrowing finalé), but not one that screams out for repeat viewings. (director's commentary, featurette, memorial pages)

Unknown White Male (Wellspring) -- The validity of this documentary has been questioned, but either way it's a fascinating look at the horrors of amnesia. (six featurettes)

Catalog Titles

Blade Runner (Warner Bros.) -- Be aware: This is the same DVD as the current BR release, only with a new anamorphic transfer. The mega-swanky Special Editions arrive next year!

Brazil (Criterion) -- A one-disc (and now-anamorphic) version of Criterion's superlative three-disc set. (director's commentary)

Frankenstein Unbound (Fox) -- From director Roger Corman, starring John Hurt, Bridget Fonda, Raul Julia and Jason Patric. Yep, it's a weird one. (no extras)

Gojira (Sony) -- Includes the U.S. version and (for the first time) the original uncut Japanese version of the classic monster movie. (audio commentaries, documentaries, featurettes, etc.)

Seven Samurai (Criterion) -- 'Nuff said. (two audio commentaries, three documentaries, featurettes, etc.)

Direct-to-Video

Broken Trail (Sony) -- Technically this Robert Duvall oater was made for cable, but I think it's one of the best Westerns in years. (featurette)

Dorm Daze 2 (Lionsgate) -- If there's anything better than a National Lampoon "comedy," it's the sequel. (extras tbd)

The Plague (Sony) -- Earth's children fall into a coma, only to awaken years later with unpleasant things on their collective mind. (audio commentary, eight deleted scenes)

Population 436 (Sony) -- How does a town maintain the exact same population for 100 years? (alternate ending)

"These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do. But one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you..." - Nancy Sinatra

If you loved Calendar Girls and The Full Monty, you'll love Kinky Boots, directed by Julian Jarrold. Kinky Boots is another film in the genre of British films with quirky, rural characters doing something outrageous. In The Full Monty it was a group of laid off guys doing well, the full monty; in Calendar Girls it was a group of older women shedding their clothes and inhibitions to make a fundraising calendar. In Kinky Boots, we have a reluctant heir to a shoe factory owner who decides to save his family's factory from shutting down by switching the company's product from reliable, well-made English brogues to reliable, well-made, sexy boots - for drag queens and transexual men.

The film stars Joel Edgerton (Star Wars: Episodes Two and Three) as Charlie Price, who takes over the shoemaking factory that has been in his family for four generations after the sudden death of his father, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Melinda and Melinda, Red Dust, Love Actually) as Lola the drag queen, who helps save Charlie's factory by desiging the sexiest boots the quiet burg of Northampton has ever seen. Rounding out the cast are Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) as Don, a factory worker who takes an instant dislike to Lola, Sara-Jane Potts as Lauren, the feisty factory worker who makes Charlie believe in himself, and Calendar Girl Linda Bassett.

When Charlie takes over the factory, he soon learns the large order of brogues they are working on has been canceled, and the factory is in dire financial straits. He is forced to make 15 employees redundant, but Lauren challenges his complacency by telling him to stop asking "what can I do" and saying "it's not my fault", and find a way to save the factory.