CHRISTY
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Jess Gabor, Ethan Embry, Katy O'Brian, and Chad Coleman
Director: David Michôd
NICK
As someone who has remained unconvinced of Sydney Sweeney's dramatic lead potential, Christy is without a doubt her strongest case yet. Sweeney and co-star Ben Foster are both excellent in this, and when the focus is on the relationship of their characters, it's engaging. Unfortunately, the boxing aspect is where things fall short. For as much boxing as there is in the film, the in-ring scenes aren't dynamic in any way, and it leads to weightless fights. A career-best performance for Sweeney, no doubt. But the portrayal of Christy Martin's boxing career deserved more effort.
ADRIANO
I acknowledge these movies are not for me, but still, I despised Christy. Sydney Sweeney's fine, mostly doing the cry face she often does, but she has some strong moments towards the end. Beyond the fact that this goes lazily through the typical sports biopic tropes, Christy mainly exists to prop-up Christy Martin's abuse from her husband and mother (played admittedly great by Ben Foster and visibly horrible by Merritt Wever). I know these were terrible people, but the complete lack of nuance assures my stance that this is trauma porn masquerading as inspiration.
QUENTIN
There isn’t anything particularly ground-breaking about Christy, as it follows most of the usual sports biopic tropes, especially those centered on queer women athletes. But for someone who had no idea about Christy Martin’s (a committed Sydney Sweeney, giving a career best performance) story, I was engaged through all the standard sex, drugs, abuse, and mother-daughter friction. Granted, it helps when the performances are this good (the perpetually underrated and chameleonic Ben Foster also is great), but there is a reason these stories keep getting told. Simply put, they make for good drama. Yeah, it’s somewhat familiar, but that’s not always a bad thing.
This film was reviewed by Nick, Adriano, and Quentin as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2025 Zurich Film Festival, respectively.