King Richard Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

3. Aunjanue Ellis & Jon Bernthal Provide Strong Support

Though Will Smith is rightly garnering the lion's share of the awards buzz for his superb performance, there are two other actors in the movie who really should be courting major awards plaudits themselves.

Firstly there's Aunjanue Ellis, who is simply terrific as Richard's wife Brandy. While it'd be easy for the film to push her to the periphery in favour of her more-famous husband and daughters or even make her a passive wife stereotype, Brandy is well-drawn here as a pivotal piece of the family puzzle.

Her best moments involve dressing Richard down for his flawed decision-making, his ego-centrism, and his over-protectiveness of their daughters. With enough industry support she could easily end up with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

And then there's Jon Bernthal, who is cast brilliantly against-type as the sisters' most prominent trainer, Rick Macci.

Macci is a magnanimous and surprisingly funny presence who finds himself increasingly bristling up against Richard when he refuses to take Venus on tour despite her clearly being ready to do so.

Bernthal nails the scarcely-veiled rage at Richard's obstinate behaviour, but also brings a lot of human warmth to the table through his interactions with Venus in particular.

It's not a particularly flashy part, but it is a great performance all the same, and if it picks up enough love following the film's theatrical release, could well lead to Bernthal earning his first Oscar nod in the Best Supporting Actor field.