Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal in the Reinaldo Marcus Green movie ‘King Richard’

Fierce determination for a just outcome in realizing talent against cultural obstacles brings us to the tennis world today. Dramatization of the role Richard Williams, Oracene ‘Brandy’ Price and their family experienced in aiding the rise of tennis players Venus Williams and Serena Williams as successful tennis players is the subject of the movie King Richard (2021).

(From left, Will Smith as Richard Williams and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Oracene ‘Brandy’ Price in the Reinaldo Marcus Green movie King Richard).

The Reinaldo Marcus Green directed movie King Richard focuses heavily on the role Richard Williams, as portrayed by Will Smith, had in parenting his two biological kids with Oracene ‘Brandy’ Price to elite levels in women’s tennis. Price, married to Richard through the period considered by the movie, was portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Williams was single-minded in raising Venus and Serena to be tennis players with as many level-setting advantages as they could get, which included efforts to steer his two biological and at points his three step daughters away from unhelpful elements in their Compton, California neighborhood. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton portrayed Venus and Serena Williams, respectively.

(From left, Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams, Will Smith as Richard Williams, Demi Singleton as Serena Williams, Tony Goldwyn as Paul Cohen, Christopher Wallinger as John McEnroe and Chase Del Rey as Pete Sampras in the Reinaldo Marcus Green movie King Richard).

While Brandy and Richard were skilled tennis players in their own right, there were thoughts that coaching from professionals with influence in professional, or amateur leading to professional, coaching would be better. This led Williams to bring his young daughters Venus and Serena to a practice Paul Cohen was administering for a pair of professionals on the men’s tennis tour. Cohen, portrayed by Tony Goldwyn, would agree to coach only one of the sisters for free. Venus received the professional coaching as Serena would be coached by Brandy, her mother.

(Five daughters lived in the home of Richard Williams and Oracene ‘Brandy’ Price at the beginning of King Richard. From left, Mikayla Lashae Bartholomew as Yetunde Price, Layla Crawford as Lyndrea Price, Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams, Daniele Lawson as Isha Price and Demi Singleton as Serena Williams were portrayed in the Reinaldo Marcus Green movie King Richard).

An eventual disagreement over the personal effect that participating in tournaments, as Cohen recommended as the eventual means of the Williams daughters becoming professional, that led to drama within the tennis playing and human upbringing of the Williams sisters. Connecting to Rick Macci, as portrayed by Jon Bernthal, led the family to Florida for training. The strong wills of Rick Macci and Richard Williams would conflict frequently, yet a significant beauty of the King Richard landed for me in how this and the eventual results for the Williams‘ girls were portrayed for the family and in actual life.

(From left, Will Smith as Richard Williams and Jon Bernthal as Rick Macci in the Reinaldo Marcus Green movie King Richard).

The underlying humanity and nuance in the King Richard story worked really well. Credit for this in part rests with the screenplay of Zach Baylin, along with the production of Will Smith and the direction of Reinaldo Marcus Green. Having enjoyed the biography, the sports content, the humanity and the performances of Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, I give Reinaldo Marcus Green‘s King Richard 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, June 3, 2023

Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe and Frances McDormand in the Alan Parker movie ‘Mississippi Burning’

The movie Mississippi Burning (1988) originates its sense of setting with the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael ‘Mickey’ Schwerner. For a historical account of their disappearance and murders near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, you may review this description. Mississippi Burning was woven into a crime thriller with two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers in fictional Jessup County. The hostility encountered from the town’s residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan launches a police procedural that becomes the story.

(From left, Willem Dafoe as FBI agent Alan Ward (based on Joseph Sullivan) and Gene Hackman as FBI agent Rupert Anderson (based on John Proctor) in the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

The movie begins with an introduction to one black and two Jewish civil rights workers tasked with helping African Americans register for voting. The three disappear, which sufficiently alarms the national organizations supporting the workers to contact the FBI. Agents Alan Ward and Rupert Anderson, as portrayed by Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman, respectively, are dispatched to work in a reluctant local community to get to the truth and bring a sense of justice to a situation bent in a decidedly different direction. The FBI agents have a decidedly different approach for engaging the people in the local community.

(From left, Brad Dourif as Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (based on Cecil Price) and Gailard Sartain as Ray Stuckey, Sheriff of Jessup County (based on Lawrence A. Rainey) in the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

The difficulty engaging the community begins with the fanatical presence of the Ku Klux Klan, which has penetrated the police where the disappearances occurred. The black community is afraid lives in legitimate fear while the white community sees and / or administers the hate and abuse rampant in the town. Jessup County Sheriff Ray Stuckey and Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell, as portrayed Gailard Sartain and Brad Dourif, respectively, are prominent leaders in this underlying truth.

(Frances McDormand as Mrs. Pell (as based on Conner Price, standing) and Park Overall as Connie (seated) in the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

A fair portion of the investigative portion of the movie offers insight into the differing approaches for learning the fate of the civil rights workers. The older FBI agent Rupert Anderson and the more senior FBI agent Alan Ward have distinctly different styles, wherein the more by-the-book approach reigns supreme from the start of the movie. This really ruffles the elder field agent, and the exposition for how this works out really offers credit to the storytelling, if not the historical accuracy, of the movie. While the absence of significant focus on the black population in the storytelling is a problem for some, the incorporation of Mrs. Pell and Connie, as portrayed by Frances McDormand and Park Overall, has it merits.

(From left, Darius McCrary as Aaron Williams and Lou Walker as Vertis Williams in the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

The break that ends the law enforcement tension above happens with a cost. Aaron and Vertis Williams, as portrayed by Darius McCrary and Lou Walker, respectively, suffer at a key point that brings about a swift transition in approach that may or may not be decisive. That this shift occurs is emotionally satisfying, whether Ward and Anderson actually come to appreciate each other afterward or not.

(From left, R. Lee Ermey as Mayor Tilman, Stephen Tobolowsky as Clayton Townley (based on Samuel Bowers) and Michael Rooker as Frank Bailey (based on Alton Wayne Roberts) in the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

Zeroing in on the community dedication to participating in or tacitly approving of it, outside the local police, included businessman Clayton Townley, Mayor Tilman and believer Frank Bailey. Stephen Tobolowsky, R. Lee Ermey and Michael Rooker portrayed Townley, Tilman and Bailey, respectively. That an attempt to connect the dots with these three, plus Lester Cowens (based on Jimmy Snowden), was an appreciated touch in the portrayed story. Pruitt Taylor Vince portrayed Lester Cowens.

(Actor Gene Hackman and director Alan Parker on location for the Alan Parker movie Mississippi Burning).

There is so many interesting choices made in the movie that we receive with Mississippi Burning. The choices in what to include and exclude thematically, both from the historical sense and then from the emotional sense of helping folks feel the importance of the story were solid. The decision not to take the perspective of the aggrieved parties themselves further, or the aggrieved class of people further, is interesting as a limitation; my sense is that the movie still works despite not going further. Additionally, the depth of the cast that told the story included additionally needs to be called out as a recommendation for this movie. I grant Mississippi as directed by Alan Parker 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, February 26, 2022

Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis in the Brian De Palma movie ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’

A gritty story flush with racial and class sensibilities amidst conflicting power struggles seemed like a natural fit for a Brian De Palma directed film. The hard hitting black comedy satire that was the 1987 Tom Wolfe book The Bonfire of the Vanities became the poorly adapted, poorly cast movie The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), losing over $31 million.

(From left, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin with Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy with Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, in the Brian De Palma movie The Bonfire of the Vanities).

Tom Hanks starred as Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street bond trader who makes millions while enjoying the good life. Things move from top of the world with an ongoing affair with Southern belle gold digger Maria Ruskin, as portrayed by Melanie Griffith, get into trouble in the South Bronx wherein a hit-and-run accident leaves an African American youth severely injured. McCoy’s life begins to unravel with multiple angles in play about how to respond.

(From left, Rita Wilson as a Public Relations ambassador and Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow in the Brian De Palma movie The Bonfire of the Vanities).

The movie version of The Bonfire of the Vanities stars Bruce Willis as the newspaper reporter Peter Fallow feels like an observer parody of Nick Carraway from F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby. Fallow breaks much of the public’s interest in the appearance of impropriety against Sherman McCoy, who is due to lose his wife and daughter, his profession, and ultimately his freedom. Kim Cattrall portrayed Sherman’s wife, Judy McCoy, with Kirsten Dunst portraying their daughter, Campbell McCoy.

(John Hancock as Reverend Bacon in the Brian De Palma movie The Bonfire of the Vanities).

Episcopal minister Reverend Bacon, as portrayed by John Hancock, is portrayed as one of many corrupted community leaders in the film and book. The court of public opinion with an underlying profit angle is placed aside the political ambition of a district attorney, pursuit of sexual favors from the assistant district attorney, and all antagonists in the storyline having an illegitimate motivation that values perceptions of truth over actual truth; this sense of satire as motivation includes Judge Leonard White, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman, prosecuting attorney Jed Kramer, as portrayed by Saul Rubinek, defense attorney Tom Killian, as portrayed by Kevin Dunn, District Attorney Abe Weiss, as portrayed by F. Murray Abraham, and others still.

(Saul Rubinek as prosecuting attorney Jed Kramer, Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Kevin Dunn as defense attorney Tom Killian and Morgan Freeman as Judge Leonard White in the Brian De Palma movie The Bonfire of the Vanities).

Those having read the underlying Thomas Wolfe book will be decidedly disappointed by the movie, with casting and the Michael Cristofer screenplay contributing to this feel. The dissecting of motivation that so powerfully comes through with the book, and so strongly gets stated in first person testimonies in many circumstances, simply never shows up in the movie. Quite simply, that is a real shame for those aiming to understand the commentary that Wolfe‘s work really makes.

(From left, actor Bruce Willis, director Brian De Palma, and actor Tom Hanks in the Brian De Palma movie The Bonfire of the Vanities).

The Bonfire of the Vanities, in premise and subject matter, remains relevant. The hard hitting notions of the underlying conflicts, the efforts to get just outcomes without the taint of corruption, and the depth of the look within the movie resembles the book while taking too many departures, simplifications, and lost along the way qualities. Watching this movie simply does not do the story justice, which leads to my giving The Bonfire of the Vanities as directed by Brian De Palma 3.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, August 14, 2021