REVIEW: ‘King Richard’ is the Feel Good Film of the Year

Will Smith, the two-time Oscar nominee best known for Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Bad Boys for Life, stars in the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures’ King Richard, slated for November 19 release and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green known for Monsters and Men.

Trigger Warning: This piece analyzes the imbalance of the violence and graphic scenes in ‘King Richard’ coming from the black community vs the racial bias and trauma Williams describes in the film. There is no expectation that racial trauma should appear in all Black cinema. It’s questioning if there is an imbalance in how violence and abuse are shown in this film.

Smith stars as Richard Williams, the father of two of the greatest tennis champions to ever live, Serena and Venus Williams. We learn Richard’s story on how he not only planned the powerhouse duos’ victory before they were even born, the trials and tribulations that it took to get them there, but the power of claiming what you want and not wavering through the journey. The story begins as Richard denies the odds and trains his daughters on the sport of tennis from reading magazines and books on tennis giants and their agents and trainers, devising a 78-page plan which served as a road map to his daughter’s success.

If Beale Street Could Talk and Quantico‘s Aunjanue Ellis stars as Oracene “Brandy” Williams the mother of Serena and Venus and we get a glimpse into the flame of rising young actresses Saniyya Sidney (Hidden Figures, Fences) as Venus and Demi Singleton (Godfather of Harlem) as Serena. Tony Goldwyn (Divergent, Scandal) stars as coach Paul Cohen who trained past legends in tennis including John McEnroe. The Many Saints of Newark and Ford v Ferrari star Jon Bernthal plays coach Rick Macci, who is well known for training such names as Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, and Maria Sharapova.

King Richard is a love story; love of self, culture, and family and what happens when you put what’s important in life first, you will surely come out on top. This sports film is the inspiring and empowerment movie of the year and will have you choked up with happy tears from beginning to end with its brilliant portrayal of Richard Williams and the rise of Serena and Venus.

The film at first glance doesn’t miss any of the important details, touching on the good and sometimes bad incidents the Williams family experienced in Compton, trying to gain traction in a sport that at the time saw little to no players of color.

While the film does highlight some of the constant setbacks from outside violence, racism, and bigotry, which pushed Richard to success and made Venus and Serena the world champions and icons they are today, there was definitely room to explore more on who Williams was as a man outside of training his legendary daughters. King Richard shares the father’s past raw and uncomfortable history with the KKK, public beatings, and his adversities, giving a backstory on how the odds were never stacked in his favor.

But there was still something missing from the scenes that included some of the racism they encountered. Williams jokes that everyone is staring on the court because they have never seen anyone as good-looking as they all were and everyone laughs. In reality, I felt that while a cute scene, and while it’s a true story, these scenarios play out very differently in public, at schools, at camps, and at public events, especially in the ’90s. This type of bigotry and passive-aggressiveness can be downright violent at times as we have seen from recent events with the Becky and Karen news stories, including the Central Park Amy Cooper attack that has gone viral.

While I can’t speak for the Williams family, I just found it odd that the only abuse we saw on screen was coming from the community in which they lived, where we saw Richard getting beat up repeatedly on the Compton tennis courts that he trained his daughters on.

Williams mentioned getting beaten by the KKK but there was no flashback. To only see a glimpse of the Rodney King beating on a TV that the family was watching, didn’t seem as though they represented racism as well as they could have. While there are issues surrounding showing too much racial trauma in recent projects trying to mimic the success of Get Out, I felt this film needed to be more balanced, especially when the violent scenes within the city of Compton were so repetitive and graphic, including predatory behavior. I would have been fine with seeing no graphic content at all. We also see the neighbor calling the police on Williams for training his daughters vigorously, but again, these are more of the biases that were coming from the black community.

The bigger picture is that Serena and Venus are brown-skinned females with natural hair, winning and taking up space in white privileged places. The micro-aggressions that people of color face, I just didn’t see in this film outside of a few small scenes. While I’m not sure if Serena and Venus were completely shielded from the N-word or other abusive rhetoric, it seems unlikely that there was no verbal abuse at all from anyone even under their breath. The parents storming off the tennis court was not it for me.

That said, there were still so many amazing elements that make this film an inspirational award-worthy sports story including Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton perfectly capturing our hearts with their portrayal of real-life love, kindness, strength, and perseverance in the sisterhood of Venus and Serena. There were so many scenes that hit you right in the soul, including the vision of 14-year-old Venus walking out to her first professional debut in Oakland with her signature beautiful white beads.

Will Smith becomes Richard from the moment you see him on screen and gives an award-worthy performance of the tough love, southern mannerisms, and humor in this, “As you think, so shall you be,” calculated real-life character. Aunjanue Ellis also gave an award-worthy full circle performance in playing Brandy Williams and nailed it as mother, wife, protector, and trainer, showcasing the strength and contributions to her daughters’ life and success.

The cinematography, set design and visuals were outstanding and included Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), production designers Wynn Thomas (Da 5 Bloods, Hidden Figures), and William Arnold (The Hate U Give), and Oscar-nominated editor Pamela Martin (The Fighter). With two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer Sharen Davis (Dreamgirls, Ray) on board, there is no surprise that the costumes were realistic and really had the viewer nestled into the ’90s flashback. The film truly brought you along for the ride, from late ‘80s early ‘90s Compton, to exclusive and posh tennis clubs, and on to the world stage.

King Richard is for anyone who loves a classic successful sports story but needs to be seen by every young girl, especially every black girl who has a dream. King Richard tells a rousing story of taking no’s and turning them into pure excellence. Ending with an empowering new song by Beyoncé was just everything; “Be Alive” will surely be everyone’s self-proclaimed new self-love anthem. King Richard is simply magic.

Slated for U.S. release on November 19 in theaters and on HBO Max via the Ad-Free plan; King Richard will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from its theatrical release.