Will Smith has barely been out of the headlines recently, but not for the reasons you may expect. Sure, he’s got a brand new movie to promote that’s been drumming up plenty of Academy Awards hype, but the impending release of his memoirs has also been gaining serious attention.
As well as admitting that he’d once contemplated suicide, Smith’s book also shockingly revealed he fantasized about killing his own father for the physical and emotional torture he’d inflicted on his mother during his tough upbringing, and that’s without even mentioning the conspiracy theories swirling around his vaccination status.
Ignoring his personal life completely, King Richard is now streaming on HBO Max, and it’s being hailed as the best work of the former Fresh Prince’s career. The 53 year-old plays the old man of tennis icons Venus and Serena Williams, and he’s been the favorite to finally land that Academy Award for Best Actor ever since the movie first screened for critics this summer.
The general consensus is that King Richard delivers a fairly formulaic sports biopic, but that’s comfortably overcome by the strength of the performances across the board. Given Smith’s enduring star power, there’s no reason why it won’t be able to put a dent in the box office this weekend as well, despite the patchy track record of success to have afflicted HBO Max’s hybrids.
