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****
Dir: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (12A, 121 mins)
A gender clash on the tennis court from 1973 proves remarkably timely and entertaining in 2017 with Steve Carell and Emma Stone effortlessly rallying against one another with crowd pleasing effect. Billie Jean King (Stone), tennis grand slam champion back in the seventies is challenged by retired Wimbledon champ Bobby Riggs (Carell) to a boys vs girls exhibition match. Chauvinism was rife back then, and the contest boiled down to sexist pig against hairy-legged women’s libber, though it was far more than that. Riggs wanted to get back into the spotlight and played the clown, whilst Billie Jean King really wanted to make a difference to prevailing sexist attitudes; women earned a twelfth of their male counterparts in tennis at the time. King also had to come to terms with her sexuality and the possible impact it would have on her career and life, leaving her coach and husband after falling in love with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough). Baited into the play-off, the final confrontation is thrillingly and simply captured. Little Miss Sunshine directors Dayton and Faris create a deftly enjoyable history lesson and comment on modern day gender inequality whilst Carell and Stone both score acting match points.
Opens November 24