Movies

Battle of the Sexes

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in a scene from the movie “Battle of the Sexes.” Rated: L, PG-13. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX | CNS

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The early 1970s in all its revanchist sexism, double-knit-fabric garishness and choking cigarette smoke is the setting of the coming-of-age story for women’s tennis, as Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) takes on Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) in the famed 1973 exhibition match in Houston’s Astrodome. This lightly fictionalized version of history is ultimately more about King than the past-his-prime Riggs, but the script by Simon Beaufoy, as directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, takes pains to show each character’s harsh isolation and crippling doubts.

Watch out for: References to aberrant sexuality and fleeting profanities.

Rated: L, limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; MPAA: PG-13

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