I was surprised to find that Battle of The Sexes, the biographical David vs Goliath tale of BIlly Jean King’s iconic match against Bobby Riggs is easily one of my favorite films of the year. In general, I’m not too keen on biopics. The things that make reality profound don’t really translate to film. In fact, they’re sort of at odds with one another.
Movies call for a very particular kind of hero, one whose shortcomings are poetic, or ironic in a way that tends to be muted in real life. Yet directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris excel at treading the line between inspiring and messianic. They never hesitate to celebrate the cultural impact of Billy Jean King, as both a sports and feminist icon, but they also make a point to humanize her and her bombastic rival, Bobby Riggs.
Emma Stone plays King with a focused charm, a witty, often conflicted stalwart of women’s rights grappling ego and sexuality. She’s at times craven and selfish, in a manner that feels cinematic and relatable. King‘s characterization, much like the film itself, addresses salient themes without getting bogged down by them. Real life heroes are imperfect, usually in ways that aren’t glamorous or dramatic, and that’s compelling.
Steve Carrell is right at home embodying Bobby Riggs, a winsome, albeit obnoxious, showman, who, as the film points out, isn’t really the oafish chauvinist the trailer sells him as. He’s an addict with a failing marriage and a glory days complex, but the film doesn’t dwell on this. In fact, one of the few bones I have to pick with Battle Of the Sexes is its perfunctory attempt to counterbalance Billie Jean King's’ genuinely gripping love affair subplot with Bobby Riggs’s marital and gambling woes. For the most part, when Carrel wasn’t acting against King, his scenes felt like unwelcome distractions.
The titular tennis match is fairly brief but still every bit as tense as it needs to be. It isn’t overly dramatic, it isn’t moralizing, and its end (King’s victory) doesn’t liberate her from the social constraints that plague her throughout the movie. This is one of the film’s strengths, but its most defining strength is the undeniable chemistry shared between Emma Stone and Andrea Riseborough.
King’s reluctant romance with Marilyn Barnett is handled remarkably well. There’s a certain manic energy to it that is made even more engaging when you reach the film’s end only to find it doesn’t have any real pay-off, which is cut off by the its commentary on sexuality. Our hero doesn’t get the girl, a daring end to an otherwise lighthearted journey.
Outside of Carrell and Riseborough’s exceptional performance, only Austin Stowell who played Billie Jean King's husband, Larry King, managed to be memorable. There’s a great scene in the film where Larry learns that Billy, his wife of many years, is having an affair with a woman. It is Stowell’s performance in this scene that really makes you empathize with Billy’s torment.
Ultimately, Battle of The Sexes is a feel good sports dramedy, and it doesn't let its empowering message get in the way of that.
