Review: ‘Exhibiting Forgiveness,’ starring André Holland, John Earl Jelks, Andra Day and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

October 19, 2024

by Carla Hay

André Holland and John Earl Jelks in “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“Exhibiting Forgiveness”

Directed by Titus Kaphar

Culture Representation: Taking place in the 2020s, with flashbacks to the 1990s, mostly in New Jersey, the dramatic film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A successful and talented painter artist has his emotional well-being thrown into turmoil when his estranged father comes back into his life and wants to reconcile.

Culture Audience: “Exhibiting Forgiveness” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and impactful dramas about generational trauma and family relationships.

André Holland in “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” presents an authentically raw and poignant story of a painter artist navigating different emotions when his estranged father comes back into his life. This well-acted drama skillfully shows various perspectives. Some of the narrative is a little jumbled in the beginning, but the movie gets better as it goes along.

Written and directed by Titus Kaphar, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The movie (which was filmed location in New Jersey and in New York) is largely inspired by experiences from Kaphar’s own life. All of the artwork for the movie’s protagonist is Kaphar’s own artwork.

In “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” protagonist Tarrell Rodin (played by André Holland) is a talented painter artist who lives in his native New Jersey and seems to have it all: He’s happily married to his singer/songwriter wife Aisha (played by Andra Day); they are loving and devoted parents to an adorable and intelligent son named Jermaine (played by Daniel Michael Barriere), who is about 4 or 5 years old; and Tarrell’s career is on the rise, thanks to a recently critically acclaimed exhibit of his art.

But underneath this seemingly middle-class bliss, Tarrell is struggling with trauma and emotional damage from his childhood. Throughout the movie, it’s shown that Tarrell has used his art (which consist mostly of “slice of life” portraits of people and things in his life) as a form of therapy, in addition to being a way to express himself. The main cause of Tarrell’s unhappy childhood is his estranged father La’Ron (played by John Earl Jelks), nicknamed Ronnie to some people.

Flashbacks show that when Tarrell was about 12 or 13 years old (played by Ian Foreman), he worked part-time with La’Ron, who had his own lawn care/landscaping business. Tarrell was La’Ron’s only “employee,” although the movie implies that Tarrell probably wasn’t paid much if he was paid at all. La’Ron was seriously addicted to crack cocaine for almost all of Tarrell’s childhood. La’Ron was verbally and physically abusive to Tarrell and to Tarrell’s mother Joyce (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who worked in an unnamed service industry job.

One of the heart-wrenching scenes in the movie is when young Tarrell accidentally steps on a nail while working with La’Ron. It’s a deep injury that causes a lot of bleeding and pain. Instead of taking Tarrell to a hospital for medical care, La’Ron shouts at Tarrell to toughen up like a man and keep working. He forces Tarrell to mow a lawn and do other work with this injured foot.

While Tarrell is a passenger in La’Ron’s truck, Tarrell then sees La’Ron take the money they made that day and drive to a drug dealer to buy crack cocaine. A disgusted and anguished Tarrell then decides to walk home while limping from his foot injury. His mother Joyce finds out what happens and takes him to a hospital.

Tarrell, who is now in his 40s, shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. He has nightmares but won’t talk about it with Aisha, who has grown frustrated because Tarrell is reluctant to take her advice to seek therapy. “I can’t do this with you anymore,” Aisha says in exasperation after Tarrell wakes up from another bad dream but won’t talk about it. “Call a doctor,” she adds. Tarrell says not-very-convincingly: “I will.”

After his current art exhibit gets a glowing review from an influential art critic, Tarrell’s agent Janine (played by Jaime Ray Newman) is ecstatic because she thinks this review can boost his career. “You got a fucking brilliant review from a critic who hates everything,” Janine says. Tarrell’s reaction seems to be that he doesn’t really care because he has other things on his mind.

The first time La’Ron is seen on screen, he is homeless and is in a convenience store that gets robbed. La’Ron tries to stop the robber, whose name is Tommy (played by Justin Hofstad), but Tommy beats up La’Ron and flees. La’Ron then finds a place to stay at a halfway house for recovering addicts. The halfway house has a strict 8 p.m. curfew for residents, who are also required to attend recovery meetings.

Because the movie introduces La’Ron in this way, he might generate automatic sympathy from viewers who see him as a down-on-his-luck vagrant/recovering addict who is trying to get his life together and on a path to recovery. And when La’Ron tries to reconnect with Tarrell at Joyce’s house, viewers might wonder why Tarrell is so angry at La’Ron and so resistant to forgiving him. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” reveals there’s more to La’Ron than what he appears to be in the movie’s first few scenes of him.

The flashbacks then show why Tarrell is so resentful toward La’Ron. These flashbacks might or might not change viewers opinions of La’Ron. These two sides of La’Ron will make viewers wonder if he deserves forgiveness or not. “Exhibiting Forgives” also invites viewers to ponder this question: “Who’s the best person to judge if La’Ron has really changed?”

Meanwhile, Joyce (who is very religious) has already forgiven La’Ron and wants Tarrell to do the same. Joyce acts as a mediator between La’Ron and Tarrell. “He’s trying,” Joyce pleads to Tarrell. “He’s changed.” She tells La’Ron: “You need to make peace with your son. You’re not going to back out on your promise this time.”

La’Ron insists that he’s been clean and sober, but that isn’t enough to convince Tarrell. Aisha meets La’Ron for the first time during this uncomfortable reunion. Later, Tarrell comments about La’Ron to Aisha: “I just thought the first time you would meet him would be in his casket.”

Finally, Tarrell agrees to have a one-on-one conversation with La’Ron and tries to connect with him in the best way that he knows how: through art. Tarrell brings a video camera and starts interviewing and filming La’Ron like a documentary filmmaker. Tarrell asks questions to La’Ron about La’Ron’s life story. And for the first time, Tarrell hears about La’Ron’s childhood (La’Ron also had an abusive father and a “saintly” mother) and how La’Ron got addicted to crack.

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” is also a movie about how denial and blocking out bad memories are ways that some people cope with trauma. Joyce is an example of this type of coping. In one of the movie’s most emotionally charged scenes, Joyce has a visceral reaction when Tarrell reminds her of a low point that he witnessed as a child during her troubled relationship with La’Ron.

It’s never made clear if La’Ron and Joyce officially divorced or have remained legally separated. But now that La’Ron is back in the neighborhood, Joyce almost seems giddy and ready to rekindle whatever romance that they had. She repeatedly tells people that La’Ron was her first love, as if that’s reason enough to welcome him back into her life. Joyce doesn’t want to be reminded that “first love” doesn’t always mean “healthy love.”

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” gets so wrapped up in the story of Tarrell and La’Ron, it somewhat falls short in having interesting details about Aisha and how she’s being affected by this family reunion. Because singer/actress Day first became known as a singer, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” at times seems more like a showcase for Day’s singing talent rather than character development for Aisha. Day performs an original song called “Bricks” in the movie.

The written words of James Baldwin and Maya Angelou are featured intermittently in the movie. These quotes come across as arty or pretentious, depending on your perspective. Holland, Jelks and Ellis-Taylor give compelling and very believable performances of three people who are flawed in their own ways and are trying to find a way to heal with dignity. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” doesn’t get preachy or too sentimental. Rather, it shows in unflinching ways that people can take different paths and have different versions of forgiveness that don’t always guarantee a happy ending for everyone.

Roadside Attractions released “Exhibiting Forgiveness” in U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.

Review: ‘Nickel Boys,’ starring Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

September 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse in “Nickel Boys” (Photo by L. Kasimu Harris/Orion Pictures)

“Nickel Boys”

Directed by RaMell Ross

Culture Representation: Taking place in Florida and in New York City, from the late 1950s to 2003, the dramatic film “Nickel Boys” (based on the novel “The Nickel Boys”) features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people and a few Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two teenage boys become friends while they live at at a reform school and endure an oppressive, abusive and racist environment.

Culture Audience: “Nickel Boys” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of filmmaker RaMell Ross, the book and which the movie is based, and well-acted movies about how people process childhood trauma.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Nickel Boys” (Photo courtesy of Orion Pictures)

Artfully made and absorbing to watch, “Nickel Boys” is a risk-taking drama that makes unorthodox choices about memories and perspectives. Inspired by real events about a reform school that abused teenage boys, this movie also has compelling acting. It’s the type of movie that will test the patience of viewers who might be expecting a more traditional narrative structure. But for open-minded movie fans who appreciate bold, artistic moves in cinema, “Nickel Boys” is like watching an unpredictable formation of a mosaic. “Nickel Boys” had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and later screened at the 2024 New York Film Festival.

Directed by RaMell Ross (who co-wrote the “Nickel Boys” screenplay with Joslyn Barnes), “Nickel Boys” is adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel “The Nickel Boys.” The book is loosely based on the real-life story of the Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, which was a state-operated reform school in Marianna, Florida, from 1900 to 2011. The school was permanently shut down after numerous lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation uncovered decades of torture and other abuse against children who were at the reform school.

“Nickel Boys” (which takes place from the late 1950s to 2003) tells the non-chronological story of Elwood Curtis, whose life changes forever due to an unfortunate series of circumstances. In 1962, Elwood (played by Ethan Herisse) is a bright, empathetic and socially conscious 16-year-old, who will soon turn 17. Elwood’s parents are deceased.

Elwood lives with his widowed grandmother Hattie (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) in the racially segregated community of Frenchtown, Florida. Hattie (who works as a hotel maid) and Elwood have hope for and enthusiastic interest in the burgeoning U.S. civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even though Hattie and her co-workers have been ordered not to talk about politics when they’re on the job. Elwood excels in academics and has a promising future.

Elwood has a teacher/mentor named Mr. Hill (played by Jimmie Fails), who recommends Elwood for an advanced-placement academy program called the Melvin Griggs Technical School, which has college-level courses but accepts intellectually gifted high school students for enrollment. Mr. Hill is also involved in the civil rights movement. When a student asks Mr. Hill if he’s a Freedom Rider and how he got a scar on his head, Mr. Hill replies: “Nashville. A white man slugged me with a tire iron.”

One day, Elwood accepts a car ride from a man driving an emerald turquoise Impala. Elwood doesn’t know this man, who appears to be friendly and helpful. Elwood isn’t in the car for very long when the car is pulled over by a racist cop, who pulls the driver by the ear and tells him the car has been reported stolen and “only spooks” steal this type of car. Elwood is in the wrong place at the wrong time, so he is arrested and charged with being a theft accomplice.

“Nickel Boys” doesn’t show Elwood’s courtroom proceedings because the movie makes a point that Elwood was going to be found guilty no matter what, in a system that is racially biased and stacked against people who can’t afford good legal representation. Elwood gets sentenced to Nickel Academy, a reform school for boys. It becomes a terrible experience where he is desperate to escape.

On the surface, Nickel Academy tries to give the impression that this institution truly cares about making these boys into better people. When new enrollees first arrive, they are told about the four levels of existence at Nickel Academy, where reaching the highest level will supposedly get an enrollee released from Nickel Academy. The lowest level is being a Grub, which is the level that all new enrollees are automatically assigned. From there, an enrollee can work his way up to being an Explorer, then a Pioneer, and then the highest level: Ace.

But the reality is that Nickel Academy is an institution that regularly abuses boys who are imprisoned there. In addition to getting vicious beatings and whippings, boys are often locked in solitary confinement in unsanitary conditions and sweltering temperatures. It’s also a racially charged environment because the people on the receiving end of this abuse are mostly black, while the people in authority positions are white. The people in power at this school include a sadistic administrator named Spencer (played by Hamish Linklater) and a bullying school employee in his 20s named Harper (played by Fred Hechinger), who is essentially a henchman who eagerly inflicts abuse and punishment.

Elwood starts off as an introverted loner at Nickel Academy. But he strikes up a tentative acquaintance with Jack Turner (played by Brandon Wilson), who likes to be called by his last name and appears to be more street-smart and tougher that Elwood. As the two teens get to know each other better and become close friends, it becomes apparent to both of them that Elwood has more bravery when it comes to fighting against injustice. Elwood is also the one who is more likely to meticulously plan an escape.

Meanwhile, Elwood’s separation from his protective and worried grandmother Hattie takes a toll on her mental health. There’s a heartbreaking scene where she’s alone at her kitchen and begins talking out loud to herself while cutting slices of frosted cake. Ellis-Taylor isn’t a main character in “Nickel Boys,” but her performance has an indelible impact on the emotional core of the movie.

Because the story of “Nickel Boys” is mainly about the friendship between Elwood and Turner, other enrollees at Nickel Academy don’t get much character depth. Two of the teenage side characters who get some screen time are (1) physically large Griff (played by Luke Tennie), a student boxer who is exploited for money by academy officials and (2) Jaime (played by Bryan Gael Guzman), a friendly and somewhat bashful Latino who is often shunned or excluded by other students because he isn’t black or white.

The movie’s scenes with middle-aged Elwood (played by Daveed Diggs) unfold gradually to reveal what he did with his life after he left Nickel Academy. Without giving away too much information, it’s enough to say that he moved to New York City not long after his hellish experience at Nickel Academy and has been living in New York City ever since. In the early 2000s, Elwood’s bad memories about Nickel Academy are triggered when he finds out that Nickel Academy has been in the news for horrific discoveries that were made about the academy.

“Nickel Boys” (which has cinematography by Jomo Fray) often has extreme close-ups of people or objects that could be somewhat jarring to viewers who want to see everything in that scene. But these extreme close-ups force viewers to pay more attention to the dialogue rather than get distracted by what’s in the background. The lighting and hues in the movie range from vibrant when Elwood’s life is bursting with optimism to bleak when Elwood’s life reaches depressing low points.

There’s one particular flashback scene early on in the movie that is example of how these extreme close-ups make the movie look more artistic: In a scene taking place in the late 1950s, when Elwood (played by Ethan Cole Sharp) is about 11 or 12 years old. His grandmother Hattie is ironing something, and as her iron slides back and forth, Elwood can be seen reflected in the iron.

The camera’s point of view often switches back and forth from a first-person angle to an observational angle. When the middle-aged Elwood is on screen, his face isn’t fully shown until much later in the movie. “Nickel Boys” also has interludes of real-world archival footage as context and comparison.

Clips from the 1958 dramatic film “The Defiant Ones” (starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as prison escapees) are shown when Elwood is in a situation where he and someone else are entangled with law enforcement. For example, when Elwood is in the back of a police car with someone, there’s also a similar clip of Poitier and Curtis in the back of a police vehicle. “The Defiant Ones” is an interesting choice because it’s a movie that was controversial in its time because of its observations of race relations and the criminal justice system.

Beyond the unconventional camera angles and somewhat abstract editing, “Nickel Boys” has a very talented principal cast authentically conveying the complex experiences of their characters. Herisse and Wilson are a dynamic duo together and separately in their portrayals of two teens fighting to keep their sanity and dignity when trapped in a cruel institution that wants to do permanent harm to them. Diggs also shines in his role as middle-aged Elwood, who is an example of survivor resilience.

“Nickel Boys” might get some criticism from people who think the world has more than enough movies about racism, child abuse and other struggles experienced by people who are often oppressed and exploited. However, even though “Nickel Boys” is a story that takes place in the past, the movie also serves as a reminder that these injustices are still going on today. And with children in institutions often being the targets of these crimes, “Nickel Boys” is also an urgent wake-up call to hold institutions accountable when they do more harm than good.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures will release “Nickel Boys” in select U.S. cinemas on December 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Origin’ (2023), starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

December 10, 2023

by Carla Hay

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Origin” (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/Neon)

“Origin” (2023)

Directed by Ava DuVernay

Some language in German and Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, Germany, and India, the dramatic film “Origin” (based on the non-fiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”) features an African American, white and Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After experiencing two major deaths in her family, a grieving non-fiction author decides to write a book investigating how societal prejudices around the world are interconnected through different forms of caste systems, even though some people are skeptical that this is a viable concept for a research book.

Culture Audience: “Origin” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Ava DuVernay and movies that take uncomfortable but necessary looks at how harmful societal prejudices come in many different forms but have the same goals of oppressing other people.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Origin” (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/Neon)

“Origin” weaves a meaningful cinematic tapestry that shows how societal prejudices are interconnected. The acting performances in this drama are admirable, but some viewers might think the movie’s pacing is too slow. “Origin” also presents multiple timeline-jumping storylines alongside the main story. This juggling of different stories in one movie might not appeal to everyone, with some viewers thinking that this narrative is too cluttered and messy. “Origin” (which had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival) is best appreciated by people who have the patience to watch a layered 135-minute movie with no distractions.

Written and directed by Ava DuVernay (who is one of the movie’s producers), “Origin” is based on American journalist-turned-author Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling 2020 non-fiction book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” In the book, Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilkerson presents the theory that caste systems based on societal prejudices have caused various forms of damaging oppression around the world. In “Origin,” Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, also known as Aunjanue Ellis) is the movie’s main character, who researches this theory by using three main examples: racism in the United States, the Holocaust in Europe, and the caste system in India.

Racism in the United States includes scenes and mentions about the Trayon Martin tragedy of 2012, when 17-year-old Martin (who was unarmed) was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by a man who followed Martin and called 911 to report that Martin looked suspicious. (Myles Frost portrays Martin in “Origin.”) The killing of Martin is widely considered to be a flashpoint for the start of the Black Lives Matter movement.

At the time this tragedy occurred, Isabel is shown to be in a happy interracial marriage with her husband Brett Hamilton (played by Jon Bernthal), who is a mathematician and financial analyst. Isabel’s widowed mother Ruby Wilkerson (played by Emily Yancy), who uses a wheelchair, lives with Isabel and Brett. Isabel and Brett, who do not have children, have an upper-middle-class lifestyle where they go to parties attended by affluent and intellectual people. It’s at one of these parties where Isabel (a former newspaper journalist) is approached by her former editor Amari Selvan (played by Blair Underwood) to do a news article on the Martin tragedy, but she declines the request because she says she doesn’t want to be a journalist anymore.

Although things are going well in the marriage of Isabel and Brett, the spouses have to grapple with the difficult decision of putting Ruby in an assisted living facility when Ruby’s physical condition requires more medical attention than what Isabel and Brett can provide in their home. Isabel has a close emotional bond with Ruby, as well as with Isabel’s cousin Marion Wilkerson (played by Niecy Nash-Betts). Within a year, two of these family members will be dead.

A grieving Isabel then gets the idea to write “Caste” and goes on an international journey to do research for the book. (“Origin” was filmed in Germany, India, and the American cities of Montgomery in Alabama and Savannah in Georgia.) Ellis-Taylor gives a very good performance as the quietly determined Isabel, whose grief is not just on a personal level but also on a collective level for all the suffering and inhumanity that she has to report in her book.

While Isabel is on this research journey (she travels to Germany and India), “Origin” simultaneously shows stories that took place in the past. In 1930s Nazi-controlled Germany, African American husband-and-wife scholars Allison Davis (played by Isha Carlos Blaaker) and Elizabeth Davis (played by Jasmine Cephas Jones) experience racism when they are visiting in Berlin. The racist Germans whom Allison and Elizabeth encounter are openly hostile in their disbelief that black people can be well-educated and intelligent.

Meanwhile, a German shipyard worker named August Landmesser (played by Finn Wittrock), a gentile whose community is largely supportive of the Nazi antisemitic agenda, has to decide how he’s going to handle his secret romance with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler (played by Victoria Pedretti), who wants to be more publicly open about their relationship. Allison and Elizabeth later team up with Harvard University anthropology spouses Burleigh Gardner (played by Matthew Zuk) and Mary Gardner (played by Hannah Pniewski) for an undercover social experiment that won’t be revealed in this review but is shown in the movie.

When Isabel is in India, she does deep-dive research into the caste system and learns more about the horrible treatment of Dalit people, who are considered the lowest of the low in India’s hierarchal society. Isabel also becomes familiar with the teachings of India’s former minister of law and justice Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a controversial Dalit leader who fought for the civil rights of Dalit people. The parts of “Origin” that take place in India seem a little rushed in toward the end of the film.

The problem that some people might have with “Origin” is that it takes close to an hour into the movie before Isabel starts her research journey. The backstory about her family and the August/Irma romance fill up most of the first half of the film. “Origin” certainly could have used better film editing in this first half. For example, the movie really didn’t need to spend as much time as it did showing Isabel and Brett doing a search for an assisted living facility for Ruby.

A few notable actors have cameos in the parts of “Origin” that take place in the United States. Audra McDonald has the role of Miss Hale, one of the people who’s interviewed by Isabel for the book. Miss Hale shares vivid and painful memories of experiencing racism as a child.

Connie Nielsen has the role of Sabine, a German who meets Isabel in Germany, during a small dinner party at the home of their mutual friend Ulrich (played by John Hans Tester). Sabine is skeptical of Isabel’s theory that the Nazis in 1930s Germany used racial segregation and slavery laws from the United States as a blueprint for the Holocaust. Sabine thinks the book’s concept is flawed and doesn’t hesitate to tell Isabel her opinions. Sabine says that slavery in the United States was about “subjugation,” while the Holocaust in Europe was about “extermination.”

In an earlier scene, Nick Offerman has the role of a plumber named Dave, who visits Isabel’s home to fix a plumbing problem in her basement. Dave wears a Make America Great Again hat (a signature look of Donald Trump supporters), which is supposed to signal that he’s the type of politically conservative person who might clash with politically liberal Isabel. However, the conversation that Isabel and Dave have in the movie will surprise viewers who might be expecting some type of confrontation.

“Origin” takes a while to get to the heart of the story, but its approach to the subject matter should be admired for not being entirely predictable. Just like Wilkerson did in “Caste,” DuVernay wants viewers of “Origin” to understand that although certain laws exist that have banned slavery and genocide in certain countries that have been notorious for both, the toxic prejudices that fueled these horrors still exist in one form or another. By bringing together stories that take place in various time periods, “Origin” succeeds in its intention to show people a deeply moving film that exemplifies Spanish philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote about the pitfalls of forgetting what history has taught: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Neon released “Origin” in select U.S. cinemas on December 8, 2023, with a wider release in U.S. cinemas on January 19, 2024.

Review: ‘King Richard,’ starring Will Smith

November 21, 2021

by Carla Hay

Aunjanue Ellis, Mikayla Bartholomew, Will Smith, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton and Daniele Lawson in “King Richard” (Photo by Chiabella James/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“King Richard”

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

Culture Representation: Taking place in the early-to-mid-1990s, mainly in California and Florida, the dramatic film “King Richard” features a cast of African American and white characters (with a few Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Coming from an underprivileged background, Richard “Richie” Williams becomes the first tennis coach of his daughters Venus and Serena, but his unorthodox methods often clash with the traditions of the elite world of tennis.

Culture Audience: “King Richard” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Will Smith and the real-life Venus Williams and Serena Williams, as well as people who are interested in well-acted sports movies about people who triumph against the odds.

Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Will Smith and Tony Goldwyn in King Richard” (Photo by Chiabella James/Warner Bros. Pictures)

The dramatic film “King Richard” is both a tribute and a feel-good Hollywood version of how Richard “Richie” Williams guided his daughters Venus and Serena to tennis superstardom. The movie is set in the early-to-mid-1990s, at the beginning of Venus’ and Serena’s tennis careers. The tennis matches in the story focus more on Venus’ rise to tennis glory, since her championships came before Serena’s.

In the role of Richard Williams, Will Smith gives a very charismatic performance as a flawed but loving and determined father. The movie shows in abundance how Richard Williams’ stubbornness was both an asset and a liability when he became the person who had the biggest impact on Venus’ and Serena’s respective tennis careers. As it stands, this movie is told from Richard’s male and very domineering perspective.

What saves this movie from being unchecked worship of patriarchy is that it gives credit to Oracene “Brandy” Williams (Venus and Serena’s mother, winningly played by Aunjanue Ellis) as being an underrated, positive force in the family. Oracene (who was a nurse when this story took place) was the one who held the family together in their toughest times. She was also the intelligence behind some of the crucial decisions that were made when Venus and Serena were underage children. If Richard was the “king” of the family, then Oracene was undoubtedly the “queen.”

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Zach Baylin, “King Richard” doesn’t shy away from some of the controversial aspects of Richard Williams’ life, nor does the movie portray him as saintly. But the title of the movie says it all: The intention of “King Richard” is to give Richard Williams the same level of respect as the tennis stars who are treated as sports royalty. It’s a bit of a stretch, considering that Richard wasn’t the only coach that Venus and Serena ever had.

The movie acknowledges that Venus (played by Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (played by Demi Singleton) had plenty of other people who helped them along the way. There are moments when “King Richard” puts Richard Williams a little too much on a pedestal for being a “prophet” who predicted, when Venus and Serena were in elementary school, that Venus and Serena would become phenomenal tennis champs. Much ado is made about his 78-page plan where he made these predictions. The movie also depicts how Richard filmed homemade videos as electronic press kits to promote Venus and Serena.

Lots of parents have grandiose plans for their children, but it helps if those kids have the talent for whatever the parents are motivating them to do. This movie could have had a little more insight into the talent that makes Venus and Serena so special, as well as more information on when they started showing an interest in tennis. “King Richard” starts off with Venus at approximately age 11 and Serena at approximately age 10, with Richard as their “tough love” coach, already practicing on run-down tennis courts in their working-class hometown of Compton, California. At the time, Richard worked the night shift as a security guard.

The movie makes it look like all Richard had to do in the earliest days of their tennis career was to get Venus and Serena to practice a lot, in order to put the two sisters on the path to becoming great tennis players. But did Venus and Serena start with that passion for tennis, or were they pushed into it? The movie never says, because Richard (as the protagonist) is the main focus of the story. (It should be noted that Smith is also one of the producers of “King Richard.”) There are countless tennis parents who do the same things that Richard did to prepare their kids to become professional tennis players, but we don’t hear about them because their tennis kids just aren’t talented.

In the movie, Oracene (who was a widow when she married Richard in 1980) is the one who tells Richard that practicing on inferior tennis courts with substandard tennis rackets would get Venus and Serena nowhere, no matter how much hard work they did. Oracene is the one who motivates Richard to make the right connections in the elite world of tennis, where you need the kind of money that’s required to pay for training and entry fees into top tennis tournaments. However, the Williams family couldn’t afford these fees at the time. It’s at this point in the movie that Richard starts to transform himself into a maverick wheeler dealer in the tennis world.

He’s an unlikely tennis maverick. From the opening scene, the movie makes it clear that Richard’s English grammar skills aren’t very good, and he comes from a rough-and-tumble background. In a voiceover, Richard describes the type of upbringing he had: “Tennis was not a game peoples played. We was too busy running from the [Ku Klux] Klan.” (Richard was born in 1942 in Shreveport, Louisiana.)

Later in the movie, Richard tells his daughters: “When I was your age, I had to fight someone every day,” which is why he says that doesn’t get as fazed by setbacks as other people might be. The issues of racial differences and social-class inequalities are ever-present in the movie because a huge part of Venus’ and Serena’s success story is about how they became champions in a sport that’s been accessible mainly to white people who can afford it.

The Williams family members who are also depicted in the movie are Oracene’s three daughters from her first marriage: Tunde Price (played by Mikayla Bartholomew), Isha Price (played by Daniele Lawson) and Lyndrea Price (played Layla Crawford). (In real life, Venus, Serena and Isha are among the executive producers of “King Richard.”) When this movie takes place, the Williams household consists of Richard, Oracene, Venus, Serena, Tunde, Isha and Lyndrea. The girls are seen being being playful and happy around each other, doing things such as karaoke-type talent shows in their home when they spend time together.

However, “King Richard” has fairly shallow portrayals of Tunde, Isha and Lyndrea as nothing but characters whose main purpose in life is to agree with Richard and cheer on Venus and Serena when needed. In a household of five sisters, the sisters are never seen arguing with each other, or having jealousy issues because a parent seems to favor one child over another. This lack of sibling conflict is very unrealistic. The movie doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge that Richard’s single-minded focus on making Venus and Serena tennis champs surely came at a cost to his relationship with his stepdaughters, who must have felt treated differently by him.

Even in the best of circumstances, “King Richard” makes it look like Richard didn’t think his stepdaughters were worthy of the same type of attention that he was giving to Venus and Serena. Richard briefly mentions that he thinks that his other daughters in the household are “future doctors and lawyers,” but if he spent any time supporting his stepdaughters’ career goals, the movie never shows it and never shows what those goals were. “King Richard” doesn’t make an effort to distinguish the personalities of Tunde, Isha and Lyndrea, because the movie just makes them background characters in the Richard Williams show.

The only time Richard is showing individual “protective dad” attention to one of his stepdaughters is in an early scene in the movie where 16-year-old Tunde is watching Venus and Serena practice on a Compton tennis court. Richard and his other stepdaughters are there too. Some guys in their 20s are nearby. One of them, who’s named Bells (played by Craig Tate), tries to flirtatiously talk to Tunde, who seems uncomfortable with his attention. She quickly walks away from Bells when Richard sees what’s going on and tells her to get away from this leering stranger. Richard steps in and orders Bells to leave Tunde alone because she’s only 16 and not interested in dating him.

In response, Bells turns into a thug and punches Richard hard enough for Richard to fall to the ground. Richard gets up and walks away, but all five of the girls have witnessed this assault while waiting in Richard’s Volkswagen van. When he gets in the van and he’s asked if he’s okay, that’s when Richard says he had to fight someone every day when he was the same ages as his daughters. “And I didn’t have no daddy to stand in the way,” he adds. “They’re going to respect y’all.”

It won’t be the last time Richard takes a beating. He gets beat up physically, emotionally and mentally in various ways during his unstoppable efforts to make Venus and Serena among the greatest tennis players of all time. He gets plenty of rejections, of course. And he’s openly ridiculed for his decision to take Venus and Serena out of junior league tennis tournaments, so that Venus and Serena could focus on their education and go directly to the professional leagues. He often annoys people with his blunt approach, because he can be arrogant.

Richard is not a smooth talker, but the one characteristic that defines Richard in his key to his success is persistence. He’s well-aware that he doesn’t come from an educated, privileged and well-connected background. But that’s exactly why he’s so hungry for the success that he wants for Venus and Serena. He’s also fiercely proud and supportive of Venus and Serena, even if they lose a match. At least that’s how the movie portrays him.

Because of Richard’s persuasive finagling, Venus and Serena sign on with their first professional coach: Paul Cohen (played by Tony Goldwyn), who agrees to coach Venus and Serena for free because he believes in their talent and wants a cut of any prize money they will eventually win. For a while, Oracene helped RIchard with coaching duties for Serena when Cohen initially said he would only coach one of the sisters for free, and Richard decided it would be Venus. Later, Venus and Serena sign on with coach Rick Macci (played by Jon Bernthal), who agrees to relocate the entire Williams household to Macci’s home base in Florida’s Palm Beach County, where he pays for all of their living expenses and buys them the house where they live.

Macci is also motivated by getting a percentage of the millions that he thinks Venus and Serena will eventually earn. At the time, the Rick Macci International Tennis Academy (in Delray Beach, Florida) was best known for training tennis star Jennifer Capriati (played by Jessica Wacnik), who was an idol of Venus and Serena. Macci is shocked and dismayed when the investment he thought he made in Venus and Serena as future junior league champs turns out to be funding for Venus and Serena to not go on the junior league circuit after all.

It’s because Richard didn’t want his future tennis champs to get burned out on the junior league circuit. Richard tells Macci of this plan after Richard got what he wanted in their contract. Richard made the then-controversial and unheard-of decision to take Venus and Serena out of the junior leagues (the traditional route for tennis players to turn pro), so they could go to school like “normal kids” while training to go straight into the professional leagues.

Richard is further convinced he made the right decision when he sees the scandalous downfall of Capriati, beginning with her 1994 arrest for marijuana possession. The arrest exposed many of Capriati’s personal problems, which she has since largely blamed on the pressures and burnout of her junior league tennis career. Many people doubted that Venus and Serena could turn pro in their mid-teens, but Venus and Serena proved the naysayers wrong.

In addition to Capriati, other real-life tennis players are depicted by actors in brief appearances in the movie. They include John McEnroe (played by Christopher Wallinger), Pete Sampras (played by Chase Del Rey) and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (played by Marcela Zacarias), who is Venus’ opponent in the movie’s big tennis showdown. McEnroe and Sampras are seen training with Cohen during one of Richard’s first meetings with the coach. Don’t expect any of these other tennis stars to have any meaningful lines of dialogue in the movie. Each person only says a few sentences.

In the movie, Richard is depicted as being a proverbial “helicopter dad” who hovers during practice and tries to tell coaches Cohen and Macci how to do their jobs. The movie demonstrates in these scenes that these coaches only tolerated Richard because of Venus’ and Serena’s talent, not because these coaches genuinely liked Richard as a friend or respected him as a business person. Macci, who’s more emotional than Cohen, isn’t afraid to express his anger at feeling deceived or frustrated by Richard. Both coaches are the friendliest to Richard when it’s about how they can make money off of Venus and Serena.

The movie tends to gloss over the fact that for all of Richard’s big talk, what really opened important doors for Venus and Serena were the money and connections of coaches such as Cohen and Macci. Richard was a package deal with Venus and Serena. We’ll never know how differently Richard might have been treated by some of these people if Venus and Serena weren’t his underage children at the start of their tennis careers.

In other words, if Venus and Serena weren’t underage children under Richard’s legal control, would he have been as successful in launching their careers? The movie implies the answer: Probably not, because less people in the tennis industry would’ve tolerated him and his admittedly alienating ways.

However, it’s precisely because Richard was the father of Venus and Serena that he protected them in ways that many coaches or managers probably would not have protected them. The issue of race cannot be underestimated because Venus and Serena got “real talk” from Richard about the racism they would experience in the sport of tennis, which has a reputation for being elitist and catering mainly to white people. As such, one of the movie’s obvious “Oscar bait” clips is a scene where a tearful Richard tells Venus in a pep talk about her groundbreaking role in professional tennis: “You’re not just going to be representing you. You’re going to be representing every little black girl on Earth!”

Venus and Serena are portrayed as polite, hardworking children who have no other interests besides tennis and hanging out with their sisters. In the movie, Richard is shown discouraging Venus and Serena from getting too close to kids outside of their family. When Richard wants a “yes” answer from his daughters, they answer, “Yes, Daddy,” like robotic kids on command. Richard expects Venus and Serena to tell him he’s their best friend when he asks. Venus complies with the answer Richard wants to hear, but Serena says Venus is her best friend first.

It’s all played for laughs and feel-good cheer. But some of this banter just seems a little too phony, giving the impression that a lot of the real story is left out about how Richard would lose his temper and say harmful things to Venus and Serena. It’s hard to believe this movie’s rosy portrayal that Richard never really yelled hurtful things to Venus and Serena, when every hard-driving, tough-talking coach does that one point or another to people whom the coach is training. The perspectives of Venus and Serena are not given much importance in this movie, except when it comes to how they’re going to win tennis matches.

For example, viewers never learn what Venus and Serena liked to study in school or what types of friends they made in school, even if the movie makes it look like Richard was the type of father who didn’t want his underage daughters to invite any friends to visit them in their home. The movie never shows how the family celebrated milestones such as Venus’ and Serena’s birthdays, or when they graduated from middle school to high school. It’s a strange omission, considering that in real life, Richard got a lot of criticism precisely because he wanted Venus and Serena to have “normal” school experiences at that age instead of going on tennis tours.

The movie’s erasure of Venus’ and Serena’s childhood experiences that aren’t related to tennis or family all goes back to the patriarchal purpose of the movie: Showing how Richard programmed Venus and Serena on how to be tennis champs, not how to prepare them for life after tennis. There have been several documentaries about Venus and Serena where the two sisters openly admit that they will have a difficult time dealing with life when they both retire from tennis.

And how hard was Richard on Venus and Serena? The movie hints that people had concerns. There’s a scene where a police officer and a government social worker go to the Williams home in Compton to investigate a complaint that Venus and Serena were being abused because of all the rigorous training that Richard made them do.

Richard and Oracene are naturally insulted and defensive. They deny any abuse, and nothing comes of the complaint. The movie makes it look like a jealous neighbor named Ms. Strickland (played by Erika Ringor) is behind the complaint, but you have to wonder if that neighbor character was created in the movie as a villainous stand-in for well-meaning people in real life who had concerns about Richard’s parenting skills.

Whether or not there was any abuse, the family did have serious problems, which is acknowledged in one of the movie’s best scenes. It’s when Oracene confronts Richard for letting his ego stifle Venus’ wishes to play in the professional leagues at the age of 14. Oracene and Richard have an argument, which leads to Oracene verbally ripping into Richard for abandoning the family he had with his first wife and not seeming to care about having a relationship with the children he left behind in the divorce. (Richard had five biological kids and one stepchild with his first wife Betty Johnson, to whom he was married from 1965 to 1973.)

During this argument, Oracene reminds Richard that he’s had a string of failed businesses because he gave up too quickly when things got a little too hard for him. It’s easy to read between the lines, even though the movie doesn’t come right out and say it: Venus and Serena were Richard’s last-ditch attempt to get rich after he failed at starting his own businesses. He needed their talent because his own skills as an entrepreneur were questionable at best.

In the movie’s zeal to put Richard on a “prophet pedestal” and to make Oracene and Richard look like a loving couple that will stay together “’til death do us part,” the movie’s epilogue leaves out this reality: Richard and Oracene divorced in 2002. In 2010, Richard married his third wife Lakeisha Juanita Graham (who’s young enough to be his daughter), they had a son, and then the marriage ended in divorce in 2017. Maybe the “King Richard” filmmakers think that the public shouldn’t care about these details of Richard being a failure as a husband because Venus and Serena turned out to be rich and famous.

Despite the flaws in the movie’s screenplay, “King Richard” has exemplary acting from Smith, who gives one of his best movie performances as the gruff but compelling Richard. Sidney’s portrayal of Venus gets more of an emotional journey than Singleton’s portrayal of Serena, who is mostly in Venus’ shadow at this point in the sisters’ lives. (In real life, Serena would later emerge has having a more assertive personality than Venus.)

In the movie, Richard explains to Serena that he planned for Venus to become a star first. Richard predicts Venus will be ranked No. 1 in the world before Serena achieves that same goal, but Serena will eventually be considered by many to be the “greatest of all time” in tennis. He tells Serena: “I knew you was rough, you was tough, and you was a fighter.”

Sidney and Singleton both adeptly handle the movie’s tennis-playing scenes. A big highlight of the movie is an emotionally gripping, climactic scene at the 1994 Bank of the West Classic tournament in Oakland, California. One of the movie’s strengths is that it doesn’t fall into the usual clichés of how sports dramas usually end. However, the tropes of a “tough love” father/coach are played to the hilt.

As a sports movie, “King Richard” might disappoint some viewers who are expecting more screen time devoted to tennis matches. But more tennis matches on screen should be expected if Venus and Serena were the central characters. “King Richard” never lets you forget that the central character is someone who was never a pro tennis player: Richard Williams. However, the movie has the grace to admit that Venus and Serena turned out to be extraordinary people because of their mother Oracene too.

Warner Bros. Pictures released “King Richard” in U.S. cinemas and on HBO Max on November 19, 2021.

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