Release Date – 28th November 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 15 minutes, Director – David Michôd
Christy Martin (Sydney Sweeney) rises through the ranks of 90s boxing, establishing a stronger place for women in the sport, however is held back and undermined by her family and abusive husband (Ben Foster).
Christy certainly shows the flaws of its titular figure in her attitude to facing opponents. Maybe she’s playing up for the press and cameras, but there’s something about Christy Martin’s (Sydney Sweeney) comments which demonstrate an unlikable ego and cockiness. During fights which may not go as hoped as she rises through the ranks of 90s boxing it’s hard to feel a full degree of sympathy.
Where sympathy does come through though is in her personal life outside of the ring. While her career appears to excel, making for a more prominent place for women in the sport, Christy finds herself facing regular abuse from her husband (an increasingly unsettling, and to some degree unrecognisable, Ben Foster), Jim, also acting as her coach. He tells her that if she leaves him he’ll kill her, there’s no doubt that he means it. In dealing with this the film goes to some truly unexpected, and hard to watch places; especially in the third act where the drama and fear are ramped up beyond anything you’d imagine from the trailers. A conversation over the phone between the two is full of threatening tension.
Since its first festival screenings the biopic has been subject to some very sniffy reviews, and I’d argue quite unfairly. While in the first half it might be quite difficult to fully connect with the central figure there’s still an effective nature to the drama. One focusing on events outside of the ring as opportunities start to dry up in the wake of Jim holding Christy back, and her family only appearing to listen to his manipulative side of things, particularly patronising and ignorant mother Joyce (Merritt Wever) – who you just want to see get lamped like one Christy’s boxing rivals.
Over time the film certainly becomes more engaging, and a selection of good performances help to bring in consistency amongst the growing threat that Sweeney’s character faces. There’s engagement and a likable nature to much of the first half, but as the film gets closer to its third act it turns into something quite unexpected, and truly effective. The tone and push of a number of sequences that don’t hold back on detail or the levels of abuse Christy faces are quite something when it comes to the emotional reaction they earn. Through this lens Christy becomes a film about someone finding themselves, discovering their identity and what they’re good at different stages in life. Wrecked by those around her. When delving into that, and it does grow as a core theme, this slightly-sold-as-boxing-drama film, and there are elements of direct boxing drama in here that work and have a likable nature to them, is at its best.
A film with surprises in the intensity of the drama, with a good deal of threat and tension, Christy is a well-performed surprise that might not always connect you to the central figure in the first half but still has engagement in the more straightforward boxing beats.
Just A Little Bit Random 