Women getting paid less than man for the same job is still a very current problem and far from being over. This demand, however, started many decades ago and the discrepancies were even bigger than they are now. 

Female tennis players were paid an eighth of their male counterparts, despite having sold the same amount of tickets. That is one of the many problems women face at the beginning of Battle of the Sexes, the new movie by directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (both also directed Little Miss Sunshine).

Billie Jean King (Emma Stone), 29 years-old, not only is the number one female tennis player in the world in 1970s, but she is also leading the fight for equal rights against Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman), a chauvinist that was in charge of the Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament. Meanwhile, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), a retired 55-year-old tennis player who was also number one in the 1940s, is watching Billie Jean’s success on the television, feeling bored and useless, not to mention with a big gambling addiction.

Eager to win money and get back to the spotlight, Bobby challenges Billie Jean to a match, which she refuses. He, then, plays against Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), an Australian tennis player, and he wins, in an event later named “Mother’s Day Massacre”. Billie Jean decides, then, to accept his challenge, starting a media circus and one of the most watched sports event to this date: the Battle of the Sexes, watched by 90 million people in 1973.

Before the film gets to the famous match, however, the script by Simon Beaufoy shows the audience what was happening in their private lives, which gives more context to the “battle” advertised. The cast also include Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, and Elisabeth Shue, among others.

Emma Stone gives a great performance as Billie Jean, from the way she walks and moves her arms, to the subtle reactions she has when faced with uncomfortable situations. Steve Carell is perfectly cast was Bobby Riggs, who was a character himself, doing and saying crazy things and even proclaiming himself as a “chauvinist pig”. Riggs, however, is not the “villain” of the film, as one might think. There is a point when even Billie Jean King admits Riggs doesn’t really believe in what he says about women, but he rather say it for the circus created around that match.

There are many characters displaying sexism in the film, even women, but the real “villain” is Jack Kramer. He genuinely believed that women were inferior and had a serious disagreement with Billie Jean King on the eve of the match. His comments were as disturbing as seeing a male commentator raping his arm around a female commentator (the filmmakers edited actor Natalie Morales into the real footage).

The most interesting thing about Battle of the Sexes is how timely it feels, especially this year. 2017 has been an important year for discussing women’s rights, from the Women’s March in January in January, to last Sunday, when Veep, Big Little Lies, and The Handmaid’s Tale – all women-lead shows discussing women’s issues – won all the major categories during the Emmys.

So, clearly, the battle is still on and the women are ready to win the match – again.

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