In 1973, a farce played out on an international stage. Bobby Riggs, a mid-50s former champion, took on the then-current number one female tennis player in the world in an event that was more a publicity stunt than a tennis match. 90 million people watched, and I bet half of them didn’t even understand how tennis was scored. They were there to see a man play a woman, and somehow the outcome was supposed to have wide-reaching implications about the feminist movement overall.
Yeah, most of the weird stuff in the trailer for Battle of the Sexes really happened, right down to the sugar daddy jacket, so while it may seem irreverent to make this landmark event into a comedy, it sort of always was one.
Like the match itself, though, I’m sure it will eventually get serious, and the team behind Battle of the Sexes have proven they can pivot between dramatic and lighthearted moments. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris packed a broad range of emotions into their road trip dramedy Little Miss Sunshine, and they’ll need to use the same delicate touch when handling all the sociopolitical implications here.
Steve Carell gets the big, difficult role of Riggs, where he must put “the show back into chauvinist” without becoming a complete clown. Emma Stone gets the more straightforward role as the incomparable Billie Jean King, but she’ll need to pepper in a lot of humor to keep up with Carell and her other co-stars.
If it all comes together, Battle of the Sexes should be a lighthearted take on one of the weirder moments in the feminist movement, and it might just teach you how tennis works.
Battle of the Sexes is directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and stars Emma Stone, Steve Carell, and Elisabeth Shue. It will be released in the U.S. on September 22nd, 2017 and in the U.K. on November 24th, 2017. For international release dates, click here.
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