Film Review: Christy

Welcome back to the blog readers. By now, I have begun going into the "Mystery Movie Mondays" expecting each film to be pretty poor, since I have not loved a single one I saw. I only partially liked Spirited (2022), but I did not like Dead of Winter or The Mastermind (both 2025). So, I decided to give it a gamble this week, and I have come out of it on the other side. Would I finally like a "Mystery Movie Monday," or would it just be the same old shit? Stick around to find out.

Christy was directed by David Michôd from a screenplay by Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes and a story by Katherine Fugate. The film stars Sydney Sweeney, Ben Boster, Merritt Weaver, Katy O'Brian, Ethan Embry, and Chad L. Coleman. The film chronicles the life of former boxer Christy Martin, from her beginnings in the sport to her rise as the greatest female boxer in history, all the way through to her trainer and husband's attempt to murder her.

I had heard about this film, especially since Sydney Sweeney is all over the damn place right now. I had seen a trailer for this film, but never expressed any real interest in seeing this film since it is not my jam. Even though I saw The Smashing Machine (2025) a few weeks ago, I was not too terribly interested. Thank goodness I saw this film, because it is a hard watch for sure, and it was pretty damn good, thankfully the best of the "Mystery Movie Monday" films I have seen thus far. The performance of Sweeney is one I will remember, and the script was damn solid, though I have one technical flaw I will get into later.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Sydney Sweeney. Ever since she appeared on Euphoria (2019-) she has been involved in a firestorm of popularity (and a bit of overexposure). She has been in major projects like Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019), Anyone but You (2023), Madame Web, Immaculate (both 2024), Americana, Eden, Echo Valley, and the upcoming The Housemaid (all 2025), and I am starting to think it is a bit of overexposure. But in terms of her performance as former boxer Christy Martin, Sweeney delivers in one of the more visceral and powerful performances of the year. There is chaos, there is passion, there is charisma, and there is power. I cannot believe I witnessed this out of Sweeney, and it is clear that despite the overexposure, she is a very gifted performer.

I next want to talk about the script of this film. Director David Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes were the ones with the pen for this film, and their inexperience in really doing many large-scale projects initially had me a bit nervous to watch what they could potentially do. And I have to say, the two of them were able to rise to the occasion from a story by Katherine Fugate. There is a special kind of person you have to be to get me to hate Ben Foster, but the words that were uttered made me writhe with non-comfortability, and they were able to even make me hate Merritt Weaver. This film tackles some pretty dark themes, but I think this duo was able to skirt the line between us being comfortable and uncomfortable.

I want to end this review by talking about a technical flaw that I had with this film. This flaw was not major enough to drastically alter my viewing experience, but it was enough to kind of take me out of the illusion of what is happening. And it has to do with this. I get Sydney Sweeney is supposed to be playing Christy Martin, and I understand her playing Martin when she was in her 20s and maybe even her 30s. But tell me why everyone was aged up and there was a new actor for the girlfriend in the 2010 scenes, but Sydney Sweeney literally stays the same? The only thing that changes is her hair, and it took me out of the loop and it made me feel like not enough care was taken in trying to bring this story to life. They either should have aged Sweeney up or cast a new actor to play the older Martin. Just a thought, or maybe I'm getting up there to the point where I will never be happy again, I have no idea.

In conclusion, Christy bolsters a star-making performance from Sydney Sweeney in a powerful, yet visceral look at the life of Christy Martin. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.