Christy
Writer-director David Michôd brings grit and heartache to the extraordinary true story of a female boxer in 1990s’ America.
The Barbie of Boxing: Sydney Sweeney, Bryan Hibbard and Chad Coleman.
Image courtesy of Black Bear Pictures.
With Oscar season in full flow, Hollywood is wheeling out the usual roster of awards-friendly biopics. First out of the gate seemed to be The Smashing Machine, the true story of the mixed martial artist Mark Kerr, starring Dwayne Johnson in uncharacteristic form. And coming up soon is Giant, a biopic of the British featherweight world champion ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed played by Amir El-Masry. In more than one sense of the word, these pugilistic profiles would seem to have a fight on their hands.
David Michôd’s Christy is another biopic about a real-life fighter, Christy Martin, who ticked a lot of firsts in an extraordinary career. Born in the backwoods of West Virginia, Christy was the product of a deeply conservative upbringing, from a straightlaced mining community. At the start of Michôd’s chronicle, Christy (Sydney Sweeney) doesn’t seem to know what to do with her life, but she knows that she likes basketball and that she loves Rosie (Jess Gabor). Neither of her two loves sit well with her mother (Merritt Wever), a softly spoken tyrant who isn’t about to let her daughter’s shame blight the family name. Then, seemingly on a whim, Christy enters a local boxing contest for women and to everybody’s surprise wins the main prize. Christy never considered it a career move, but the boxing promoter Larry Carrier (Bill Kelly) is impressed and convinces her to introduce herself to the coach Jim Martin (Ben Foster). The latter hardly gives her a warm welcome, but after a trial run, he decides there might be a future in Christy’s powerful straight right…
In every sense of the word, Christy is a biopic, but it is much more besides. Sydney Sweeney really is a revelation as the dowdy lesbian dubbed the ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, a young woman who gradually adapts to her new skin as well as to her string of knockout victories. Before our very eyes, this hen-pecked nobody finds a new vocation, and then a confidence, and then a startling arrogance. All the while, Jim Martin circles her, prods her and extracts what he can from her success, all without breaking a sweat. There are few actors around who can exude such understated menace as Ben Foster, and his turn here is an accomplished exercise in almost subliminal self-interest.
For her performance, Sydney Sweeney gained between thirty to thirty-five pounds and underwent a rigorous training regime in weightlifting and kickboxing. Here, she inhabits the many shades of Christy, from the resentful daughter to the loyal lover, from the aspiring celebrity to the narcissistic champion, and ultimately to victim.
Under David Michôd’s consummate direction, the film has the feel of a gritty, big-budget indie, with Christy always the centre of our attention. Being an outsider, she is immediately sympathetic, particularly when forced to disown her lesbianism and is exploited by the men in her life, save, perhaps, for her supportive, emasculated father (Ethan Embry). The Australian director, who made such an auspicious breakthrough with his 2010 debut Animal Kingdom, has also secured superlative work from his editor Matt Villa and composer Antony Partos, giving his film a continuous, unbroken thrust in which the drama emerges organically. There are also exceptional turns from Merritt Wever as Christy’s chilling, blinkered mother, and from Katy O’Brian as Christy’s compassionate adversary in the ring. But it’s the story that nails our attention, the account of a woman who overcomes impossible odds to make sporting history, making us wonder why her life story has never been told before (besides in a rather short 2021 documentary on Netflix).
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Katy O’Brian, Ethan Embry, Jess Gabor, Chad Coleman, Bryan Hibbard, Tony Cavalero, Bill Kelly, Naomi Graham, Stephanie Baur.
Dir David Michôd, Pro Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Teddy Schwarzman, Brent Stiefel, Justin Lothrop, David Michôd and Sydney Sweeney, Screenplay Mirrah Foulkes and David Michôd, Ph Germain McMicking, Pro Des Chad Keith, Ed Matt Villa, Music Antony Partos, Costumes Christina Flannery, Sound Robert Mackenzie, Dialect coaches Elizabeth Himelstein and Erik Singer.
Black Bear Pictures/Anonymous Content/Votiv Films/Yoki, Inc./Fifty-Fifty Films-Black Bear Pictures.
134 mins. USA. 2025. US Rel: 7 November 2025. UK Rel: 28 November 2025. Cert. 15.
