King Richard - 6 nominations

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith

Best Motion Picture of the Year Tim White (producer) Trevor White (producer) Will Smith (producer)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Aunjanue Ellis

Best Achievement in Film Editing Pamela Martin

Best Original Screenplay Zach Baylin (written by)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) Beyoncé (music and lyric by) Dixson (music and lyric by) For song "Be Alive"

I love a good sports story.  Sports genre films quizzically tie with musicals as my favorite genre because win or lose,  the inspiration that comes from hard work, from never giving up, from dreaming a big seemingly unattainable dream gets me every time.  In this case, the story is less about the athletes and more about the parents (and primarily celebrating the dad) who led Venus and Serena to tennis excellence.  In fact, one could argue the strange decision to do a biopic not about the women athletes who are surely among the best of all time in the sport but instead about the man who charted their path to greatness.  

But there are moments - fewer than I'd like but still wonderful moments - where we see how this man (and you better believe his wife too) fomented the girl power that Serena and Venus displayed; how he taught them to believe in their own worth,  how he instilled their feminism into their DNA.  There's no question in his mind who these power athletes are about to become, and because of that, little question in their own minds about what they can achieve.

We can certainly debate the choice of centering the film on the father rather that the daughters, but we can't forget that there is something extraordinary (at that time especially) of a black family navigating the elite tennis world, and the leadership and vision that Richard Williams showed in his unwillingness to see anything but the best for his kids (all of his kids, actually).  

What we can't debate is whether King Richard stands up as an Oscars-worthy film.  The performances were top notch, and what a treat to see Will Smith back to his real acting chops, and Aunjanue Ellis giving life to Williams' wife Brandy.  The screenplay, the music, the directing, they all worked for me.  And of course, the song by Queen Bey is awesome.  Sometimes people ask me to choose the three films they should see from all the Oscar nominees, and I would slide King Richard into spot #4... if you can, make time for four because this one is a great one.

Nominated song:

Trailer:

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