Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

Battle of the Sexes is a terrific movie about a sociological sensation that was as fun as it was important, and it was very, very important. Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King was that big. The movie illuminates not just the sexual politics at play, but also early seventies mass media and a much more elegant era of tennis.

Bobby Riggs was an American original, a 55 year-old tennis hustler who spent several years as world #1 in men’s tennis. Hustler? Rosie Casals quips in the movie that he put the show into chauvinist. Ironically, Riggs was a loyal husband who only played a lout on TV – live TV, reality TV, but TV nonetheless. He was basically a White-Male-Privilege Merry Prankster. Steve Carell captures his extreme prankish masculinity.

Billie Jean King had the charisma of a potted-plant, still does. Yet she captured the crown of transcendent American sports hero as the undisputed #1 in her major sport and an igniter of social change on par with Jackie Robinson. In America, you can accomplish anything. Emma Stone’s terrific performance captures her steeliness and her grace, while giving a peek at her vulnerability. Stone’s talent seems to be unbounded.

More irony: Battle of the Sexes is a great date movie. Yep, the huge prank created by a male chauvinist makes for a female friendly flick. That’s an underdog proposition if ever there was one. Bet on it. Big.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Emma Stone

Emma Stone nails Billie Jean King. Oops, is that a bad way to describe her performance? Billie Jean isn’t an emotive person, putting her at a marked PR disadvantage to the very emotive Bobby Riggs. Underplaying her usual emotional amplitude, Stone quickly becomes King in our eyes. Very impressive!

Steve Carell

Steve Carell brings his considerable comedic energy to the party that was Bobby Riggs. Carell has long since been one of our greatest actors, especially playing his first love: the more than slightly daft dude. Tennis hustler here, he was a wannabe wrestler in Foxcatcher and an obnoxious financier in The Big Short.

Ensemble

• Andrea Riseborough’s hairdresser introduces Stone’s King to sapphic love.
• Sarah Silverman does brassy well, which suits playing pioneering promoter Gladys Heldman.
• Bill Pullman has the athletic gravitas to play tennis legend Jack Kramer.
• Alan Cumming has the flamboyance to essay Ted Tinling, tennis fashion icon.
• Elisabeth Shue has the glamorous nature to play Priscilla Wheelan, Riggs’s fancy wife.
• Austin Stowell is kinda storybook handsome as Larry King, Billie Jean’s husband
• Natalie Morales is like a sexy tomboy as the great Rosie Casals.
• Lewis Pullman – Bill Pullman’s son – underwhelms as Larry Riggs, Bobby Riggs’s son.
• Jessica McNamee is steely as the great Margaret Court, who doesn’t approve of lesbians in tennis.
• Mark Harelik plays Hank Greenberg.
• Fred Armisen is a bit freaky as Bobby Riggs’s nutritionist.
• Chris Parnell is a natural as a DJ.
• John C. McGinley as one of Riggs’s tennis buddies

Film - Really Great 4.5

Husband and wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have crafted a terrific film. Written by Simon Beaufoy, their Battle of the Sexes compares favorably to Race, 42, Ali and Concussion in the pantheon of sports drama films about real sports figures who had a historic impact on the wider society.

Edge - Risqué 1.6

Reality - Glib 1.2

Writer Simon Beaufoy has amped up the story a bit. I’m rating it at 170% of actual circumstantial reality

Now to the epochal underlying reality: The underdog won, for the betterment of all.

• WSJ on Emma Stone and the Tennis Doubles for Battle of the Sexes
• SI video of Billie Jean King & Emma Stone discussing Battle of the Sexes

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