Christy

TIFF REVIEW: BY DARREN ZAKUS

September 22, 2025

3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS

Christy soars beyond its standard sports biopic structuring thanks to the excellent cast led by a transformative, career best performance from Sydney Sweeney, making for a triumphant and inspiring cinematic experience.

Christy Martin was a trailblazing athlete as one of boxing’s most prominent female talents, helping to develop the sport for female boxers and breaking down barriers while doing so. After retiring from boxing, Christy became a sports analyst and motivational speaker, supporting victims of domestic violence and abuse, continuing to help others after restarting her own life after her marriage to her former boxing coach, James V. Martin. From anyone who has heard her speak or knows anything about her life, they know that Christy is an inspiring individual who has lived a tough life, with lots of dramatically rich life events that will no doubt inspire moviegoers of all ages and genders, making her the perfect athlete to get the biopic treatment. Between director David Michôd and Sydney Sweeney, who transforms on screen to become Christy Martin, Christy’s legacy is in more than capable hands with this rousing biopic that is going to have audiences cheering in their seats.

In terms of the film’s screenplay, director David Michôd and his co-writers Mirrah Foulkes and Katherine Fugate do not stray far from the standard sports biopic chronological retelling of the subject’s life, nor should they as it is a time and time again tried and proven formula. The film covers three decades of Christy’s life, starting off in the 1990s with her start in boxing, continuing into the 2000s with her rise to fame, and ending off in the 2010s when her relationship with her husband ended after he attempted to murder her. The first half of the film has all the hallmarks of a sports biopic, but as the relationship between Christy and her husband James is developed within the screenplay, it becomes a far more disturbing character story about Christy’s fight to stay alive within an abusive relationship. These moments of darkness are never for a second shied away from in the screenplay to deliver a more crowd pleasing experience, but instead become the film’s focus in the second half. But in doing so, the film’s messaging about overcoming domestic violence and supporting individuals in these situations, a cause that Christy has aligned herself with, galvanizes Christy’s inspiring spirit and fight that creates a rousing and powerful biopic worthy of bringing one of boxing's most historic female athletes to the big screen.

Over the past few years, Sweeney has been on a never ending rise to stardom between Euphoria and hit films like Anyone But You and Immaculate, which she also produced, but Christy offers her a role that truly lets her talents as an actress shine. Beyond the impressive physical transformation that Sweeney undergoes to transform into Christy Martin, severely bulking up and shedding the glamour that viewers associate with Sweeney as a celebrity to physically become a formidable boxer and holding her ground in the boxing sequences, Sweeney taps into a vulnerability that audiences have never seen before her. While there is an undeniable strength that she brings to Christy to do justice in portraying one of the most talented female boxers to ever exist, the fight extends beyond the boxing ring into Martin’s personal life. While grappling with her abusive relationship with her husband and coach James V. Martin, Sweeney finds a fearlessness within Christy that makes her not only an inspiring fighter within the ring, but one outside the ring. It’s a performance that has everything an actor can dream of, and one that will have Sweeney in conversation for awards contention as she is that incredible, but what is most impressive about her performance is that at every turn she is able to effortlessly capture the beautiful and inspiring spirit of Christy Martin. It truly is the best performance of Sweeney’s career to date, unleashing all of her talents as a performer and solidifying her position among the most talented actors of her generation.

As incredible as Sweeney is in the titular role, the film would not work if she was not surrounded by an equally as strong supporting cast, and Michôd has assembled a great ensemble to support her. Merritt Weaver is uncomfortably chilling in the most terrific way imaginable as Christy’s mother Joyce, who is more concerned about the image of her daughter at the cost of her daughter’s own mental and physical health with a seemingly sympathetic iciness that only Weaver could conjure up. Katy O’Brien is great as Lisa Holewyne, one of the female boxers that Christy encounters on circuit who would eventually go on to become her wife, finding a calming reasoning and compassion in this competitive world of female boxing and creates a wonderful connection with Sweeney in the film’s final scenes that they build towards together throughout the course of the film. Chad Coleman is highly entertaining as sports promoter Don King, flipping in a blink of an eye between a charming, humorous individual into a ruthless business man who is not to be crossed. But the stand out of the supporting cast is Ben Foster as James V. Martin. Foster is no stranger to playing dangerous and at times evil characters, and as James he is absolutely terrifying and disturbing when it comes to the abusive elements of his relationship with Christy. He finds a true darkness within him that towers over the film’s final act where the relationship between Christy and James reaches its breaking point, capturing the harrowing truth of domestic violence within every frame of his performance from the outward charming appearance to convince others that everything is fine to the explosive outbreaks, physiological manipulation and violence behind closed doors.

Coming out like a true fighter like Christy Martin herself, Christy is going to be the surprise favourite biopic of the fall movie season. Under the direction of David Michôd, the film stays within the well established confines of the biopic blueprint, but is executed with such care and compassion that when combined with the excellent performances of the entire cast that it results in a film that encapsulates everything that audiences love about a biopic. Fearlessly led by a spectacular career best performance from Sydney Sweeney who transforms into a boxer in front of your eyes, Christy is a powerful sports biopic that delivers a captivating experience that thanks to an outstanding cast and unflinching portrayal of Christy Martin’s life story, becomes a rousing and inspiring biopic that is every bit as worthy as its legendary subject.