If there was one thing we didn’t need this year, it’s another biopic about a combat sports legend. One month ago, we had Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine, and now we have Sydney Sweeney in Christy Martin’s biopic.
Sweeney has never been better than inhabiting Martin’s spirit in Christy. Unlike Springsteen: Delivery Me from Nowhere — another recent biopic that focused on a specific time in the subject’s life — Christy opts to tell the whole story of Martin’s rise, for better or worse.
It’s a tense watch, given Martin’s relationship with her trainer-turned-abusive/husband James V. Martin (Ben Foster). Sweeney and Foster deserve praise for their performances in their shared scenes.
Despite its conventional story and unremarkable direction, Christy tells an inspiring story that will leave you amazed by Sweeney’s gritty performance and impressed by the real-life Martin’s toughness and resilience.
Christy review: What’s it about?
Beginning in the late ‘80s, Christy starts with Martin (Sydney Sweeney) in high school. She is an outcast of sorts, due to her sexual preferences. She has to hide her relationship with Rosie (Jess Gabor).
Her home life isn’t much better. As she laments late in the biopic, Martin has been “hiding” her whole life, whether that be her sexuality or her other life choices.
Merritt Wever (The Walking Dead, Severance) plays Joyce, Martin's ultra-conservative mother. Their relationship is heartbreaking, as Joyce is very traditional, and she turns her back on her daughter when times get tough.
A lot of the praise will go towards Sweeney (and Foster, to a lesser degree), and rightfully so, but Wever delivers a fantastic performance. It's bone-chilling to watch her try to gaslight her on-screen daughter, and it's almost scary how convincing her performance is.
Complicated parental figures are a staple of biopics (as seen most recently in the aforementioned Deliver Me from Nowhere). While not a hit piece, Christy doesn't attempt to clear Martin's mom's name, and it adds to the powerful story.
The sensitive script
Christy's script was a collaborative effort between husband-wife duo David Michôd (who also directs it) and Mirrah Foulkes, who brings a much-needed feminine sensitivity to the script.
The same cannot be said of the direction, but the script is very respectful of Martin's story and women's boxing. There's no better example of this than how they go about Martin's relationship with Jim.
These are stomach-turning scenes, as the relationship begins strangely before turning sinister. A lot of credit should go to Foster, who is willing to be the bad guy. Not everyone would be okay with surrendering to being a bad guy to this degree.
A lot of the domestic violence is implied, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing. Past movies with similar subject matter, like Blonde, have exploited their subjects. That could not be further from the truth in Christy.
Christy's clunky pacing
Christy is not just a story of Martin's toxic relationship; it's about her growing past it. Michôd and Foulkes play fast and loose with the timeline of the biopic, jumping from the late '80s to the '90s and then to the 2010s.
Sometimes, this kind of rapid-fire pacing works, but it sometimes makes the biopic feel disjointed, largely because it feels like the movie is making stops to hit the landmarks of Martin's life.
That is just the result of choosing to tell her whole story, and not a portion of it. To its credit, Christy sometimes does let viewers marinate in the scenes.
The pacing wouldn't stand out as much if not for the fast-tracked final hour or so. Christy has a generous 135-minute runtime, which is probably about 15 minutes too long, but there's a lot of emphasis on her formative years.
By the time it reaches it begins to build to its crescendo, Christy has to rush through some important life events, only for it to slow down in the final half hour.
More than a boxing movie, Christy is a character study about the boxing icon. Sure, there are fights, which are very conservatively shot by Michôd, but Christy is more about her struggle than the glory she achieved.
Perhaps it could have benefited from a more confident hand behind the camera. There's nothing inherently wrong with Michôd's direction; it's just very safe. There's no signature aesthetic, and the boxing scenes don't pack a punch to the same degree as something like Raging Bull or a more recent movie, The Smashing Machine.
Sydney Sweeney disappears as Christy Martin
Credit to Sweeney, though, who embodies the life of Martin in Christy. She clearly trained hard for this role, and her ferocity in the fights can be felt through the screen.
Sweeney has previously showcased her dramatic acting chops in the likes of Reality, Americana, Immaculate, and even Euphoria. However, Christy may be her defining role for a long time.
It's not just the Southern twang that Sweeney takes on playing Martin. Her physicality and transformation into Martin underneath prosthetics and wigs is top-notch.
Clearly, she cared about this role. Whether or not it gets Oscars love remains to be seen — it will be an uphill battle. But as the real-life Martin showed, anything is possible.
Before Christy, Sweeney has never shown this much charisma. Going forward, hopefully, it doesn't take inhabiting a historical icon to get her to do so again.
Should you watch Christy?
If you're not sold on Sweeney as a movie star, Christy will make you buy stock. She is a force in Christy, and her performance alone is justification enough to watch it.
Sweeney's performance is a revelation, but the film itself is not a complete knockout. Christy is a paint-by-numbers biopic. Like many biopics, it's carried by its tour de force from its lead actor.
It's a great recovery for her — especially after the American Eagle jeans debacle.
Grade: B
Christy will be released on Nov. 7.
