King-Riggs ‘battle’ comes to the screen
‘Battle of the Sexes’
In 1973, what sounded like a publicity stunt (and partly was) turned into something more, unexpectedly living up to its billing as the “Battle of the Sexes.”
The movie of the same name, starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs, restages that event — held at the Astrodome and seen on television by an estimated 90 million people — but also shows the lives of those two tennis greats leading up to that event and, especially for King, how they came to mean something more.
Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, Natalie Morales and, via actual footage of the match telecast, Howard Cosell co-star.
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (”Little Miss Sunshine”), the movie has been getting raves and Oscar buzz since it hit the festival circuit earlier this month, with Carell and Stone’s performances getting much of the attention.
“‘Battle of the Sexes’ is less an issues movie and more an entertaining history lesson, with Stone and Carell proving they’re a winning match,” USA TODAY critic Brian Truitt wrote in his 31⁄2-star review.
“Battles of the Sexes” is rated PG-13 for some sexual content and partial nudity. It runs for 121 minutes.
‘American Made’
If nothing else, 2017 has made it clear that, these days, fact outruns fiction.
“American Made” adds another chapter to that log.
In this based-on-atrue-story black action/ comedy, Tom Cruise plays a commercial pilot who’s recruited by the CIA to get involved in a 1980s covert mission that expands into a massive drug operation and even arming and training the Nicaraguan Contra.
Directed by Doug Liman, who put Cruise through his paces in the time-travel war movie “Edge of Tomorrow,” “American Made” was marred by tragedy during filming, when two pilots were killed and another was injured during a plane crash.
The early reviews for the movie were generally positive. “It winds up simply as another sharp, spitshined Tom Cruise jet, and not a bad one at that,” Variety critic Guy Lodge wrote.
“American Made” is rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality/nudity. It runs for 115 minutes.
‘Flatliners’
Hollywood’s back-tothe-1900s rush continues with “Flatliners,” a redo of the 1990 scientist-tinkering-with-God-stuff thriller.
As in the original, which starred Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts, five medical students figure out that, by going through controlled near-death experiments, they can learn what dying is all about. But it turns out there are a few side effects to crossing over to the other side.
The new “Flatliners” stars Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, Kiersey Clemons, James Norton, with Sutherland back in a cameo.
“Flatliners” is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language, thematic material and some drug references. It runs for 108 minutes.
‘A Question of Faith’
A car accident puts the lives and hearts of three families at a different kind of crossroads in the religious drama “A Question of Faith.”
Richard T. Jones plays a pastor who, as he’s about to take over his father’s church, is confronted by tragedy when his son Eric is hit by a car whose driver was distracted by texting. Meanwhile, a construction company owner (C. Thomas Howell) faces a different tragedy when his daughter, during a singing audition, collapses, and doctors discover she has a startling health condition.
The faith-fueled drama — which is being touted by distributor PureFlix as a family film designed to start conversations about both organ donation and texting and driving — also stars Kim Fields, Renee O’Connor,
Jaci Velasquez and Donna Biscoe.
“A Question of Faith” is rated PG for thematic elements. It runs for 104 minutes.