‘Battle of the Sexes’ teaches a lesson

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Can an inspirational movie also be a drag?

That’s the distinct feeling one can’t shake walking out of Battle of the Sexes, a fictionalised rendering of the 1973 tennis match between 29-year-old Billie Jean King and 55-year-old hustler Bobby Riggs and the circumstances surrounding it.

At stake is the opportunity for women in tennis to even get equal pay consideration, the reputation of a player who could have just stayed in her lane and the perceptions of society at large and, perhaps most importantly, the men in power.

“I’m going to be the best,” says Emma Stone playing Billie Jean. “That way I can really change things.”

Fast-forward 44 years: We’re still here, aren’t we?

Battle of the Sexes, directed by the Little Miss Sunshine team Jonathan Dayton and

is playing at VOX as part of Diff365 screenings.

Valerie Faris and written by Simon Beaufoy

is a fairly standard, if unexceptional film that has two major things going for it: Stone and timeliness. The story begins by establishing Billie Jean as the best female player in the world, but still not worthy of even half of the prize money male tennis players are getting in 1972.

After trying logic on Association of Tennis Professionals head Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman), she and eight other female players boycott the tournament and form their own with the help of Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) and a Virginia Slims sponsorship.

It’s in this climate that Bobby Riggs (played with great panache by Steve Carell), a bored, washed up pro with a wealthy wife and a gambling problem proposes a male vs female tennis match.

There is a lesson in Battle of the Sexes and some hope therein for these still unequal times. Women at the top of their game risked everything to fight for equality.