Thanksgiving Weekend Watch: King Richard, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spencer

There are TOO MANY movies coming out these days. There are several on my list for Thanksgiving, but as I make my way through those, here are some reviews of the ones I’ve managed to plow my way through already, so you can consider them for your long weekend. It’s a rough job, but someone’s got to do it.

King Richard: This movie is exactly what you expected from it. Written by Zach Baylin and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, it’s a great biopic chronicling how Richard Williams (Will Smith) and his wife Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis) raised their family of five daughters and coached Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) into becoming the tennis legends we know today. The movie does not fall into the traditional biopic pitfall of trying to tell us a sweeping story from birth to death. Instead, it hones right in on when the girls were teenagers and how Richard used to coach them and eventually finagled an introduction to Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn) who coached Venus through Juniors competitions, and then their contract with Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal) who coached both girls as they turned pro.

Sidney and Singleton are absolute stars and you have no trouble believing they are going to grow up to become tennis powerhouses. It is impossible to tear your eyes away from every swing of the racket and every game of tennis they play. The script does a wonderful job of capturing the camaraderie between these two sisters, and while it acknowledges the frustration Serena feels at being second fiddle while Venus gets to forge ahead, she is still wildly supportive and knows that she has to bide her time until it is her moment to shine. And of course, Will Smith offers up a classic performance, conveying how much this man has invested in his plan for his family, but also proving that he is first and foremost a loving father. Yes, Richard clashes with his daughters’ coaches and can have unorthodox opinions on how their careers should be managed. But his overarching ambition is to make sure his daughters are smart and happy and are able to have a proper childhood without getting burnt out like other young tennis stars who become famous too quickly.

This movie also has many insights about race and what this family had to endure in the all-white world of tennis. They faced discrimination in country clubs, but also had to battle doubters in their own neighborhood who couldn’t understand what this family was up to and their wild ambitions. Ultimately, you probably won’t be surprised by anything this movie has to say, but it tells its story compellingly, with some great actors. And, if you are a tennis lover like me, there is some spectacular tennis to behold. So it's a win-win-win.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: I have been seeing the trailer for this movie for two years. It was meant to be released in the summer of 2020 but that all fell by the wayside when Covid hit. So it was a thrill to watch it at last and realize that the trailers simply did not do it justice. They made it seem like a much more serious enterprise, but instead, this is a very fun, engaging film with an amazing cast of child actors at the helm. 

The main heroine is McKenna Grace, who plays 12-year old Phoebe. She has moved with her mother, Callie (Carrie Coon) and brother, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) to the small town of Summerville, Oklahoma after her grandfather dies and leaves them a farm. Callie had no relationship with her father, but she is broke and the family has been evicted from their apartment, so they might as well move to this creepy farm and figure out next steps. Well, turns out things are amiss and they are about to get caught up in all manner of ghostly shenanigans thanks to an ancient Sumerian god who is looking to take over the town. And that dead grandfather? He was Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), one of the original Ghostbusters. Now that ghosts are afoot, the kids are about to find a whole lot of devices stashed around their home to help them save the planet. 

I don't remember much about the original movies from the 80s, but this iteration offers up a great time regardless of whether you're a super fan or a newbie to the franchise. Paul Rudd pops in as Phoebe's lackadaisical summer school teacher, and overall, there's simply this fun, comic energy permeating the film from start to finish, with Phoebe periodically telling some of the best/worst jokes you've ever heard in your life. It's silly, charming, and refreshing, not too scary, but still very exciting in the action sequences when everyone is chasing ghosts around a small town. If all you're looking for is a good time, this movie will absolutely deliver. What could be better for Thanksgiving?

Spencer: This movie is a mood piece. So, you already know your mileage may vary depending on how you feel about films that aren't particularly plot-driven but will absolutely steep you in emotion and make your soul stir in uncomfortable ways for two hours. Set in December 1991, this is about the three days when Princess Diana (the luminous Kristen Stewart) visited the Queen's Sandringham Estate for Christmas. This is pre-divorce but post discovering that Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles are an item, so suffice to say, things are...fraught. 

From the outset, the score by Jonny Greenwood is supremely unsettling, a strange cacophony of instruments that doesn't seem to match the prestigious and stuffy tone of the people on screen, and as the movie progresses, we quickly see that this is going to be a tale about a woman whose mental health is teetering, in a family that is renowned for their stiff upper lip cruelty. We are going to watch her unravel and come apart at the seams. But bizarrely, even though we all know how Diana's story ultimately ended, this script by Steven Knight does an extremely clever and kind thing by focusing on this specific part of her life story. It captures Diana in one of her lowest lows, but also gives us the chance to see her fight back before that final tragedy befell her. 

Kristen Stewart has to nab a Best Actress nomination for this performance - while the hair and makeup folk deserve much kudos for helping her with the physical attributes, she absolutely nails the voice and posture and Diana's general mien. This is not a loud and triumphant performance, but oh boy is it a heart wrenching portrait of a woman going through psychological hell. This movie is all about what's going through Diana's mind, but Stewart manages to make her brain visible to us through this performance. Part of that is also due to this wonderful script that I hope gets some awards love, along with the impeccable direction by Pablo Lorrain. There are a lot of unusual choices being made here and what could have been a very conventional biopic is turned into a surreal work of art through his weird and inspired directorial choices. Finally, shout out to the production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas and costume design by Jacqueline Durran (aka the costume designer I shout out the most on this blog - at this point I should take it for granted that if I love a movie's costumes, Durran is responsible.) This movie needs to be aesthetically perfect and capture the iconic look and feel of these people and places as known to the public before the film then deconstructs them into the mass of emotions and drama that the public didn't witness. So Sandringham is appropriately grand and chilly, while Diana's outfits are miraculous and familiar, while still offering up a psychological portrait of this woman who is defying convention by wearing her red coat instead of the green. 

Spencer is an odd and eerie movie. I can't promise that you will love it, but I can promise that it's not going to be what you expect. It has a singular vision that takes everything you knew about Princess Diana and makes it seem newly horrific. This movie will engage all your senses, but most of all, it will hit your empathy hard, making you feel for this woman and everything she was put through. It's a remarkable tale, and just when I thought there were no new ways to tell it, they found a way.