Will Smith and Reinaldo Marcus Greene‘s King Richard (Warner Bros./HBO Max) is effing aces, and Smith will obviously be Best Actor-nominated and almost certainly win. I’m sorry but that’s simply the truth of it — the man has hit a grand slam.

It’s not just a first-rate sports drama (the story of how Richard Williams launched his tennis star daughters Venus and Serena Williams in their teen years) but a supremely effective, crowd-pleasing, character-driven “fall movie” — you know, those things they used to make for award season and that people would go to see in theatres and root for in terms of potential Oscar triumphs?

I was sitting there in a state of near-amazement and muttering “wow, this is so great and so unusual for this day and age…a first-rate, phenomenally well acted, sagely written, smartly edited, adult-angled film that isn’t infantile or depressing or diseased and is not just engrossing but rousing on a spiritual and emotional level…whatever happened to movies like this? Because corporate Hollywood has all but stopped making them.

There will be no King Richard haters…trust me. It radiates the right kind of vibes…the kind everyone wants.