YMMV / King Richard

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: During a meeting he doesn't care for, Richard decides to end it by farting and leaving, a real-life tactic of his. It comes out of nowhere, is barely addressed, and never happens again.
• Consolation Award: Though his performance was acclaimed, many believed that Will Smith's Academy Award win was more due to his overall career (and not winning the award for The Pursuit of Happyness) and came at the expense of Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield losing for what had frequently been called their best work in The Power of the Dog and tick, tick... BOOM!, respectively.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Much credit has been given to Will Smith for disappearing into the least Will Smith-y role he's played in a long time. It was capped off with Smith winning the Best Actor award at the Oscars.
  • Jon Bernthal also shows his untapped comedic skills as Rick Macci rather than his usual action Anti-Hero and villain roles.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: After the film won Best Actor for Will Smith at the Academy Awards, this film became unequivocally linked to the events that unraveled with Smith that night. After Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's baldness before presenting Best Documentary Feature, Smith walked up on stage and unexpectedly slapped Rock in the face. Smith then yelled to "keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth". When Smith won Best Actor a hour later, his speech largely focused on his actions, seemingly a self-admittance that the slap overshadowed the award win. This incident became a massive worldwide story, prompting the Academy to ban Smith from all functions for ten years in the aftermath. This all caused the slap incident, along with the impact it had on Smith's career, to be by far the most known aspect of this film.
• Win Back the Crowd: After a fairly spotty recent filmography, this film was praised as being Will Smith's best movie and performance in a long time.

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