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Film: King Richard

2/3 of the way through the film I thought this one deserved best picture. The reality is that Hollywood does three things really well: spectacle, melodrama, and elevating their stars. King Richard does 2 of the 3. Will Smith's performance is strong. The melodrama works. I was completely pulled into the theme exploring the role of the father in the family. Sure, there are other themes, but to me, the overriding subject is fathering. To which I relate. Solid all around performances - the young actors were great - not asked to do a tremendous amount which again was the right choice - their characters were not as interesting or complex. Mother character ably plays a background role and thunders into the picture absolutely killing one of the great melodramatic scenes of the film. Either tennis coaches could garner a supporting actor nomination, IMO. And solid music.

But the most impressive part of the film: they shot the tennis well!

What holds the movie back is the 3rd Act. It drags. I don't see a screenwriting solution. The idea was right, but when your climax is a character walking off court for a pee break with the crowd and characters sitting around...well...it isn't exactly finding its way into great endings lectures. And by necessity, more of the story falls to the Venus character - again the right choice - but our emotions are not with her by this point. Still, I applaud this film. It layers issues of race with sport, family, class, in a vastly more complex and humane way than most films of the last 5 years (yes, I'm talking about you, Get Out).

But the movie is not "cool" and so I wonder whether it'll be given the Green Book treatment (harder tho to do with this one).