First Take: Battle of the Sexes- no bias, just brilliance

SYNOPSIS- 

The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

As the sweet smell of awards season begins to make its way around the industry, this is where the road to the Oscars begins- and what a way to open that journey with this brilliant film. Taking a sport story to the big screen is difficult, but doing it well is even more challenging- but once again, the directors of Little Miss Sunshine have delivered.

Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton have made a film that takes the story of that infamous match, and presents it from both sides- it’s paced incredibly well, handles the more sensitive parts of the story with ease, and engages modern viewers ridiculously well, and working to a script from Simon Beaufoy, this is one hell of a big screen experience, plus with Linus Sandgren behind the camera (the very cinematographer who gave us the mighty La La Land), the film looks and feels incredible. Add to that a simplistic yet powerful score from Nicholas Britell, and you have the makings of a big contender.

Then, there’s the performances. Emma Stone will easily recieve nominations for Best Actress for the second year in a row, Steve Carell plays another more dramatic role so damn well that it’s hard to believe that it’s the same man who gave the comedic genius of Anchorman’s Brick Tamland to the world, and the rest of the cast, which includes Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming (arguably one of the stand-out talents in the film) and Fred Armisen amongst others, this will be a force to be reckoned with this awards season.

THE VERDICT

This film was so good that the powers that be decided to bless me with zero adverts and trailers before I seen it. Battle of the Sexes is timely, brilliant, and treats the subject matter with the dignity it deserves- it’s a great piece of storytelling, and one that is going to do extremely well.

RATING: 4.5/5