It sounds a little cynical, but Warner Bros.’ King Richard is one of those movies that you can almost feel being precision-engineered with awards season glory in mind, not that it’s a bad thing when the quality of the film is so strong.
It’s got one of the biggest stars of the modern era getting serious and immersing himself fully into a career-best performance, based on the uplifting and inspiring true story that saw Venus and Serena Williams go from two broke kids in Compton to global superstars, household names and a pair of the all-time tennis greats.
King Richard has been generating strong buzz ever since it first screened for critics this summer, and as you can see from the reactions below, Twitter is in unanimous agreement that the Academy Awards may as well engrave Will Smith’s name on the Best Actor statue already.
Smith has been nominated twice before for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, but King Richard marks his best shot at glory yet. It’s an incredible turn from the 53 year-old, but the competition is shaping up to be fierce with some heavy hitters including The Tragedy of Macbeth‘s Denzel Washington, Tick, Tick… Boom!‘s Andrew Garfield, Don’t Look Up‘s Leonardo DiCaprio, and The Power of the Dog‘s Benedict Cumberbatch expected to provide some big name rivals for the trophy.