Battle of the Sexes
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Sometimes the competent woman beats the misogynist buffoon, said Richard Lawson in VarietyFair.com. In 1973, women’s tennis champion Billie Jean King walloped a well-pasthis-prime Bobby Riggs in a hugely hyped televised exhibition match, and this rousing dramatization of the story “has a righteous kick that excuses a lot of its hokier qualities.” Emma Stone plays the “steely, unshowy” King, and she’s as strong in that role as Steve Carell’s Riggs is cartoonishly (and fittingly) annoying, said Benjamin Lee in TheGuardian.com. King is shown battling to win women players paydays commensurate with men’s,