While co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Ruby Sparks, Little Miss Sunshine) wring tension and suspense from the same - day build - up to the match, the match itself — captured by grainy, fuzzy TV cameras with the
occasional, ground - level insert — and the immediate aftermath (symbolic and figurative, more than real or long - lasting), it's in the months - long lead - up to the match, following Billie Jean King (Emma Stone, never better) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) where Battle
of the Sexes steps up its
game to offer a sympathetic, insightful, poignant, behind - the - scenes look at the private lives
of the public personas who stepped onto the
tennis court
of the Houston Astrodome on September 20th, 1973, as Americans on both sides
of the political divide watched in rapt attention.