Almost There: Emma Stone in "Battle of the Sexes"
Monday, July 1, 2024 at 10:00PM 
Our most recent two-time Best Actress champion is back in theaters with Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness, a black-hearted tryptic that allows Emma Stone to experiment with three distinctly realized characters. To mark the occasion and the success of another tennis-related movie – Guadagnino's Challengers – let's think back to one of the few times this Academy favorite was in the race but didn't land a nomination. In 2017, right after her first Oscar win, Stone played Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the biopic was made in parallel with a Presidential election that saw a very different outcome than its titular match. Looking back, Battle of the Sexes reached for the zeitgeist yet failed to predict where the world was headed.
As for Stone, the project signaled her most outward flirtation with traditional prestige before her career went into another direction altogether…