When resurrected for the screen, events from the not-too-distant past can often take on an unexpected but spiky relevance to the contemporary social climate.
In the recreation of the Bobby Riggs v Billie Jean King tennis showdown of 1973, it is not a case of feminism being the pertinent issue, for, though the battle may still not be won in that struggle, progress is being made. What will resonate with Australian audiences, having had a needless and divisive plebiscite foisted on them by a government that has squibbed on the job it is being paid handsomely to do, is the obvious truth that others’ sexual preferences are nobody’s business but their own – love is love, as the Yes vote hopes we all understand.
The intensely hyped match between King (Emma Stone – I believed in her absolutely), America’s leading female tennis player, and Riggs (Steve Carell), the 55-year-old former Wimbledon champion, was billed by the media as the ultimate confrontation between the women’s movement and entrenched male chauvinism. Riggs, a gambler with his marriage disintegrating and needing a big-dollar break, milked it for all it was worth and it is to the movie’s credit that he is portrayed as a showman rather than a Neanderthal reactionary (that role is left to the promoter, Jack Kramer). Pushed into a corner, King understands that, reluctant though she might be, she is a flag-bearer for the new world order. By coincidence, Australia’s Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), the Christian homophobe, is seen as Kramer’s mirror in a skirt.
This is a fab flick, one that is so much better than you might have expected (for the cinephile, there really is nothing better). Including a tremendously erotic but tender girl-on-girl encounter between Billie-Jean and her hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough), it is full of heart and good humour, but serious in its intent. And if you fancy being turned on one more time by Tommy James’s Crimson and Clover, you really should not miss it.
