CHRISTY
(director/writer: David Michôd; screenwriter: Mirrah Foulkes; cinematographer: Germain McMicking; editor: Matt Villa; music: Antony Partos; cast: Sydney Sweeney (Christy Martin), Ben Foster (Jim Martin), Jess Gabor (Rosie), Merritt Wever (Joyce Salters), Ethan Embry (Johnny Salters), Katy O’Brian (Lisa Holewyne), Chad L. Coleman (Don King); Runtime: 135; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Teddy Schwartzman, Brent Stiefel, Justin Lothrop, David Michôd, Sydney Sweeney; A Black Bear Pictures release; 2025)
“Never goes deep enough into the main character’s psyche to become the knockout film it should have been.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An emotionally bleak and moving boxing biopic directed in a formulaic way by Aussie filmmaker David Michôd. It’s co-written as a slice of life boxing pic by Mirrah Foulkes and Michôd.
The closeted teen Christy Martin (Sydney Sweeney) is from a coal mining family in rural West Virginia. She upsets her obnoxious conservative mom Joyce (Merritt Wever) and dad John (Ethan Embry) with a lesbian romance with her high school friend Rosie (Jess Gabor).
After winning a local fight at age 21, in 1989, she ends up trained and managed by Jim Martin (Ben Foster). Her boxing career takes off when she gets signed in 1993 by big-time promoter Don King (Chad L. Coleman). Through King she gets promoted and becomes the face of female boxing, having a boxing career as a welterweight that lasted from 1989 to 2012. She was called “the coal miner’s daughter”.
Christy marries the older Jim and gets into an abusive marriage by the manipulative, financially cheating and cruel SOB, as her career descends because of the way he controls her and that she’s held back by a drug addiction.
It’s a gritty, heartfelt movie with effective boxing scenes (accompanied by loud soundtracks) and gut-punching performances by Sweeney and Foster. Katy O’Brian has a good supporting role as a fighter Christy battles in the ring but is able to have a friendly relationship with outside the ring.
It’s a decent conventional film that never goes deep enough into the main character’s psyche to become the knockout film it should have been.
It played at the Toronto Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/31/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com