The “King Richard” festival train keeps rolling along.
Marcus Reginald Green’s film just won Audience Award number six, this time at the Denver Film Festival. Its other festival audience wins have occurred at Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Indianapolis and Chapel Hill.
As mentioned last week, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” has only won 3 audience awards thus far in its Festival run.
Five of the six festivals where “King Richard” won audience awards, “Belfast” was also playing there and either finished in second or third place in the vote tally … We all know what would have happened if “King Richard” had actually played TIFF, “Belfast” would have never won the People’s Choice Award.
I have said this before, and I’ll say it again, “King Richard” is a force to be reckoned with — it is a better told, better acted and more entertaining movie than, supposed frontrunner of the Oscar race, “Belfast.”
”King Richard” is not a work of art, nor is it any kind of “auteur” cinema, but it absolutely works as a crowd pleaser. It has the goods to go all the way. Rags-to-riches tale? Check. True story? Check. Inclusivity? Check. High-entertainment? Check.