Growing up, I was a casual fan of multiple sports until I found a favorite. In boxing, I remember rooting for George Foreman, against Mike Tyson and for Evander Holyfield. Back then, watching a big fight night on HBO or basic cable was addictively fun for my group of friends, and after Lennox Lewis lost his world heavyweight championship belts, I pretty much lost all interest in the sport, with football and basketball immediately taking up more of my free time. And today, it feels like MMA has totally replaced professional boxing’s stronghold in American sports. Boxing truly is in a sad state of affairs.
But with the release of the docudrama, Christy, Sydney Sweeney hopes to make boxing great again… at least in this feature film.
Beginning in 1989, Christy Martin (played by Sweeney) hops into the ring without any formal training, fighting like she’s trying to destroy everyone who’s ever wronged her. After winning a tough-man contest, she gets noticed, considers full-time fighting and receives a small-time trainer, a small payment and rent-free living quarters (an RV at the side of a racetrack) for her first big fight. After passing that test, she’s teased by a big-time Florida promotion, in hopes of escaping West Virginia.
Compromises are made and while being afraid of losing her family, her money and her upstart career, Sydney marries her jealous manager (Ben Foster). Training harder than any previous man in the gym, she’s still struggling, but somehow finds her way to Don King, who signs his first female boxer. Her aggressive approach single-handedly puts her sport on the map, finally gaining international recognition, but she still deserved a good humbling. And Laila Ali brings that.
“Maybe I’m gonna make you the best woman fighter in the world…”
Martin’s eventual comeback is delayed by her personal life, as she doesn’t understand how to address her controlling trainer-husband’s money skimming, mental and physical abuse and releasing illicit videotapes of her, before it’s too late. But once she does, Christy faces the biggest rehab assignment of her life.
Photo Courtesy of Black Bear. Photo by Eddy Chen.
I’m not gonna sugar-coat it: the domestic abuse portions of this movie are incredibly tough to watch. I had to walk away a few times in order to watch it all. Eventually, I had to grab a drink just to continue it. Christy’s stone-cold determination in her fights bleeds out to her relationships, as she refuses to run away and hide from all the drama, choosing to literally fight for her life.
I will admit, I haven’t watched too many women’s fights in the past. I’d heard of Christy Martin before but didn’t know her life story. Coming from an overly conservative, disapproving family, Christy already had the odds stacked against her personal life, and that aspect never gets fully resolved by the film’s conclusion, which is unfortunate, because its 134.5-minute runtime already too long. Without an actual resolution, the movie feels like it missed a major emotional opportunity.
“What you’re doing isn’t normal… and we want you to have a happy, normal life.”
Clearly this role had to be a physically and emotionally demanding for Sydney Sweeney, who proves she has the acting chops and the physique in order to handle it all, but I was surprised by the heartfelt performance by Katy O’Brian in a minor role. Initially arriving as a fighting rival, her character stays above the personal drama, honestly offering hope and happiness to a hardened fighter with trust issues. I really enjoyed that character.
Sometimes, biopics can get messy. It’s a tricky business trying to consolidate all the important aspects of someone’s life into a nicely wrapped package on the big screen. Writer-Director David Michôd gives a strong effort here, but the runtime could have definitely been trimmed. Now, I realize all the fights are choreographed, but during Christy’s come up, I found myself cheering, hooting and hollering out loud to myself when one good punch landed after another.
Man, I miss those professional boxing days of the ’90s and early 2000s!
Sydney Sweeney sure is soaking up every minute of her pop-culture spotlight these days. First, she turned heads with her blue jeans ad campaign, then her political views came to the forefront and now Christy fights for acknowledgement within the film industry. Sweeney is great here, she might even win a few awards for her dedication as an actor (getting into shape, the weight gain/loss, various haircuts and dye jobs), in addition to her dialogue and the inevitable injuries. Will she win an Oscar? I don’t know. But she is believable in her role, here.
I won’t say Christy really compares to Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, which I also enjoyed, but for a boxing movie, it’s pretty good. Trying to escape small-town rumors and an abusive relationship, Christy fought for herself every day when just about no one else would. And it seems, so is Sydney Sweeney these days.
“I think I found my thing…”