A tale of real-life rivalry on the tennis court kicked off the Toronto Int'l Film Festival on Thursday "in a scaled-back line-up of movies that focus on tales of survival amid chaos," according to Sharp & Arsenault of REUTERS. “Borg/McEnroe” stars Shia LaBeouf as "fiery" U.S. tennis player John McEnroe and Sverrir Gudnason as "cool" Swedish champion Björn Borg, whose "epic matches" in the '80s "set the world of tennis alight." Director Janus Metz said, "Their rivalry had something universal that transcended the sport. It had deep existential questions about how two people could drive themselves above and beyond." "Borg/McEnroe" is not the only film getting a Toronto showcase "whose drama plays out on the tennis court." Emma Stone, in her first movie since winning an Oscar for musical “La La Land” in February, plays Billie Jean King as she fought '70s sexism and faced off against Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) in "Battle of the Sexes" (REUTERS, 9/7). The BBC's Steven McIntosh reported Welsh actor Scott Arthur, who plays McEnroe's tennis partner Peter Fleming in the film, described the pair's duel as the "perfect rivalry." He said, "They were kind of the first rock star tennis players. They had a swagger about them. Borg was almost like a Beatle. Everywhere he went, people were obsessed with him. Then you had McEnroe, who was more of a hot-headed fiery tennis player, didn't always play by the rules." The film is "certainly turning heads at Toronto, although its first reviews were mixed." The London Guardian awarded it two stars, with Peter Bradshaw writing, "This tennis film feels like a two-hour baseline rally, and it's not just the rackets that are made of wood." Writing in IndieWire, David Ehrlich said, "If not for LaBeouf, Borg/McEnroe would have nothing to offer that you couldn't get from simply watching a broadcast of the 1980 Wimbledon Men's Final" (BBC, 9/8).
