"Christy" Movie Review

What a pleasure it is to be pleasantly surprised by a movie these days.  Not just surprised – trust me, I was very surprised with some abysmal recent releases like Him and Good Fortune, but to be pleasantly surprised, that just don’t happen much anymore.  Not for me anyway.

I attended AMC’s Monday night Screen Unseen and got to see an advanced screening of Christy.  I would have certainly seen this movie when it is released in a couple of weeks, but I wouldn’t have been very excited and would have gone in with lowered expectations.  Sydney Sweeney, the current “It” girl doing her mandatory dramatic role and yes, another boxing movie.  Been there, done that!  Or so I thought.

I had no idea the true story of Christy Martin, a real-life female boxer, who was basically the first female boxer ever or at least the first one with a meteoric rise including her own Sports Illustrated cover.  And I’ll be damned; Ms. Sweeney can do drama!  What’s more, not unlike Charlize Theron getting lost in portraying a real person under amazing makeup to ugly her down, I can’t imagine the level of expertise to ugly down the near-perfect Sydney Sweeney.  But, again, like Theron, Sweeney was lost – absorbed into her character with great acting.  It was an amazing story with a jarring and unexpected ending.

Another surprise, while I was watching the movie and marveling at the multiple Oscar-worthy acting performances throughout, I was focused on Christy’s trainer, Jim, an actor I knew I knew but couldn’t place.  He was amazing and knowing that he wasn’t in any makeup I just couldn’t place the face.  So, as I do in most movies these days, I started scrolling through IMDB and my jaw dropped when I was that Jim was being played by Ben Foster.  An actor I don’t think I’ve seen since Hell of High Water.

I doubt this movie will get the recognition and box office it deserves, especially on the heels of the somewhat similar in storyline, The Smashing Machine, but make no mistake, this is an excellent movie with outstanding performance telling a story you’ve never heard of and won’t likely even believe.  After 121 movies in theaters so far this year, this is, by far, my favorite movie of 2025 so far.  See it!

- Paul Rosen