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Almost as big a challenge as knocking off a four-time Wimbledon champion is actually centering an entire movie around a match where most probably already know the outcome. But that is exactly what director Janus Metz and screenwriter Ronnie Sandahl have done with Borg Vs. McEnroe, a recreation of the infamous 1980 Wimbledon men’s tennis final that pitted four-time victor Bjorn Borg against the current bad boy of the game John McEnroe.

Utilizing flashbacks to get their stories growing up, as well as all the bells and whistles surrounding the match itself, it could have seemed anti-climatic to get to the main event well over the hour mark, but thanks to eerily exact performances from a cool Sverrir Gudnason as Borg and especially Shia Labeouf, a sometimes bad boy himself, as McEnroe we stay just engaged enough to care which way this thing is going to go. Now, tennis fan that I am,...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Excruciatingly suspenseful and unexpectedly moving portrait of the on-court rivalry between the two great tennis players… and the intriguing secret layer to the public dynamic between them. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): not a sports fan

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto) women’s participation in this film

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If you don’t already know who won the men’s singles tennis championship at Wimbledon in 1980, then for the sake of your own entertainment, try not to find out before you see Borg vs McEnroe, which is absolutely worth your time even if you don’t give a fig about tennis. I couldn’t possibly care less about the sport, and I nevertheless found this depiction of that Wimbledon final match — considered by some to be the finest tennis game ever — to be incredibly tense and gripping.