Zendaya is tearing it up in Luca Guadagnino's Challengers in theaters right now, a saucy and sexy love triangle that's wrapped in some absorbing tennis drama.
If you loved Challengers or you're waiting for it to arrive on whichever of the best streaming services you use, though, and you want a drama with tennis at its heart to tide you over, then look no further.
King Richard came out in 2021, and while it might now be best known for getting Will Smith the Oscar that was so heavily tarnished by his world-famous Chris Rock slap, it's got a lot more than just that going for it – and it's on Netflix right now.
A biopic of Venus and Serena Williams' father, and by extension a bit of a chronicle of the two prodigies' early lives and careers, it's a really thoughtful and heartfelt portrait of the complexity of parenting.
King Richard plays a lot with the blurry lines between being overbearing or too demanding as a parent, versus leaving things too loose and keeping your kids at too great a distance.
It's got some nice complexity to offer up on that front, but there's also no getting around the fact that Will Smith is seriously terrific in the lead role. He's got depth and pathos to him, but also a lovely light touch when needed, and the Oscar he won was itself not controversial.
The movie scored five other nominations that it missed out on the awards for, making it a pretty unanimously praised pick if you're looking to watch something acclaimed.
Of course, what it doesn't have is a bisexual love triangle, so there's only so much we can do to compare it to Challengers.
Still, King Richard is an ace, and it features a surprisingly great soundtrack – you might not have expected it to include Best Original Song in its list of Oscar nominations, but Beyoncé wrote a terrific song for it that would sound amazing belting out of any of the best soundbars we've tested in the last couple of years.
