King Richard (2021)

November 23, 2021 11:41 AM

A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard Williams.

Will Smith’s Performance Makes King Richard Worth Seeing [Vulture]
‘King Richard’ is an Intimate Look at the Man Behind the Williams Phenoms [Black Girl Nerds]
Will Smith aces it as the Williams sisters’ tennis-coaching dad [Guardian]
‘We were going to be number one’: how Richard Williams molded two tennis legends [Guardian]

posted by ellieBOA (6 comments total)

Streaming on HBO Max as well as in cinemas.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:42 AM on November 23, 2021

It feels like for this movie to be good, it would have to be complicated and fraught (the material is certainly there), but I don't want to watch anything complicated and fraught about the Williamses, I just want them to enjoy their success.
posted by praemunire at 11:56 AM on November 23, 2021 [3 favorites]

I found it moving, emotional, and good.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:56 PM on November 23, 2021

Also Serena and Venus (plus half sister Isha) executive produced.
posted by ellieBOA at 1:26 PM on November 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

Late to the party on this one. I'm a big fan of the Williams sisters, Serena in particular for her absolute domination of the sport, and know they were involved with this film so I'm glad it did well. The movie was well done, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that their dad was actually kind of awful, and made decisions about their lives and careers for years without consulting them or their mother. Sure, he loved them, and it turned out great, but he comes across like a well-intentioned tyrant.
posted by emd3737 at 7:20 PM on March 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Surprised that there hasn't been more chat about this movie. It recently came to Netflix in Canada and I watched it the other day and really enjoyed it. I wished that it had even more of the story but it was fascinating to learn their story and then to see how closely the scenes followed the home videos that Richard had made of Venus and Serena growing up. I'm around the same age as Serena and so I have always been aware of the Williams sisters but never really aware of the overall significance of their careers, how many barriers they broke through and how significantly they did it, though I've definitely seen the impact.

I found the family dynamic really interesting, how all Venus and Serena's sisters were so supportive of their career but in some ways they were sidelined in the family life to be bit players in their tennis-playing sisters' eventual success. The movie didn't make the relationships super clear, I don't think, but the three older daughters were Brandy's from before she and Richard married. I also found it kind of strange that they kept throwing in random references to the family being Jehovah's Witnesses with a few mentions of the Kingdom Hall without ever explicitly saying that they were JWs.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:24 AM on September 27, 2023