All Hail These New Movie Royals
Hear ye, hear ye! There’s a new batch of film royalty on the scene, thanks to a slew of 2021 movies featuring nobility—some real, some fictional, some professed. Either way, every single one of these films is an awards contender, so make sure you’ve paid your respects to the following royals who are now gracing Redbox with their presence.
Will Smith as Richard Williams in King Richard – While it might not center around an actual king, this true tale does provide the amazing “origin story” of Venus and Serena Williams’ (Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton) rise to tennis stardom and dominance. Their dad, Richard, was singularly focused on training them to be the best in the world, and it’s amazing to see how he broke the family into the elite inner-circles of the tennis industry to achieve that goal.
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer – Though we all know that Princess Diana’s life had a tragic ending—and I can’t lie and say there aren’t a lot of depressing scenes in this partially fictionalized movie about her strained marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing)—there are several light and hopeful parts to this version of Diana’s story. Many include Sally Hawkins as a dresser that Diana befriends. It’s worth seeing for Stewart’s spot-on performance, which has made her the frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar.
Timothée Chalamet as the Duke of Atreides’ noble son Paul in Dune – In addition to being space royalty, Paul might also be the prophesized messiah of the spice-rich desert planet Arrakis, where his literal dream girl Chani (Zendaya) lives. What’s spice, you may wonder? It’s both a psychedelic drug AND the main thing needed to achieve interstellar travel in the future. So you can rest assured no one’s going to let House Atreides take Arrakis over without a fight.
Dev Patel as Sir Gawain (King Arthur’s nephew) in The Green Knight – This is not your typical Medieval tale. Mostly because it revolves around a challenge that a giant, paranormal tree-looking dude proposes to the Knights of the Round Table, and which King Arthur’s nephew Gawain decides to take on in order to prove himself. And then a lot of even weirder stuff happens after that. It’s one of those movies you’ll either love or be totally perplexed by, but it’s worth watching all the same.
Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver as Count Pierre d’Alençon, Sir Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris in The Last Duel – The third true story on this list, The Last Duel presents a historical moment from three different perspectives: a husband (Jean), his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer), and her accused rapist (Jacques). The whole nasty affair ends in a fight to the death between Jean and Jacques, so it is indeed the last duel for one of them. As Pierre, Affleck portrays a Count appointed by King Charles VI who becomes embroiled in the battle between the two men.
And with that, we say, long live these new movie royals!