King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021) Will Smith
Wikipedia:
King Richard is a 2021 American biographical drama film directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Zach Baylin. It follows the life of Richard Williams, the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, who are named as executive producers of the film. It stars Will Smith in the title role, with Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn and Jon Bernthal.
IMDb page.
Wikipedia page. Excerpt:
Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reads, "King Richard transcends sport biopic formulas with refreshingly nuanced storytelling – and a towering performance from Will Smith in the title role." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 94% positive score, with 89% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "A towering turn from Will Smith, his best since Ali and one of the year’s great screen performances, defines nearly every frame of this film." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "an engrossing family drama that doubles as a sharp rethink of how a family operates within the overlapping, often overbearing spheres of race, class, sports and celebrity." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal criticized the film's length, but said that it was "a sports movie that transcends itself without losing track of itself." Wendy Ide of The Guardian gave the film 4/5 stars, describing it as a "crowd-pleasing biopic" and writing: "Smith is excellent, fully inhabiting the character in one of the only roles to date that has required him to fully shed his habitual gloss of Will Smith charm." Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent also praised Smith's performance, writing: "It's one of those impressive fusions between actor and character, which all comes across so effortlessly onscreen, but gives King Richard the lifeblood it needs to triumph as a film." K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone wrote: "The movie's brightest-burning idea, and it is sincerely moving, is that Richard, for his flaws, does what he does on behalf of the young Black women he's raising. This rings true in real life and in fiction."
Allegra Frank of Slate was more critical of the film, writing: "Venus and Serena Williams are the names we rightly remember, but King Richard remains fixated on the male bravado that pushed for them to get their names out there in the first place." Kyle Smith of National Review wrote that the film "makes the sororal tennis champs seem almost incidental to their own rise to greatness." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of C+, writing that it "keeps enough of Richard's messy past off screen to feel like a hagiography with a few concessions, rather than a true warts-and-all portrait."
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