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Sydney Sweeney is a knockout as she takes big swing in ‘Christy’ boxing biopic at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival
 Johnny Oleksinski  NY Post Fri, September 5, 2025 at 7:32 PM EDT

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 TORONTO — A boxing movie has finally yanked Sydney Sweeney out of her restrictive Hollywood box.She takes a big swing in “Christy,” the biopic of the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” fighter Christy Martin that had its world premiere Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival.Instantly, the beaming star of “The White Lotus” and “Anyone But You” disappears. “They said it felt like I had demons,” Sweeney’s Martin says at the start in a deep brogue reminiscent of Amanda Seyfried’s Elizabeth Holmes on “The Dropout.” “Maybe it’s true. Maybe I do.”Sweeney very well might.The darkness she tapped into on HBO’s “Euphoria” scarily resurfaces, but in a more mature, extremely challenging role that spans all the way from 1989 to 2012, and includes glorious career highs and unfathomable personal lows. Some of those, you’ll wince at. The quality Sweeney does bring from her fluffier films — and it’s an essential element of her biggest and best performance so far — is an inner light that Martin keeps aflame as her life horrifyingly falls to pieces.Not all scenes are note perfect, but we’re with her every extremely challenging step of the way thanks to Sweeney’s inviting energy.For those who don’t remember Martin’s harrowing story, there will be shock and recoiling in the second half. Even more so because “Christy,” directed by Australian David Michôd with down-under indie brusqueness, starts out as an entertaining underdog sports movie.When grinning, gung-ho Christy first slugs a man to the ground in the practice ring and quickly yells, “I’m sorry!,” it gets a big laugh.There’s an in-the-ring montage set to “Bust A Move.”
And her physical change is noticeable.Sweeney’s Martin has a scissors-gone-wild ‘90s haircut and a “Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum!” gait.She looks like she can 100% kick your ass and have a grand old time doing it.
It’s funny when Christy adopts a rosy signature wardrobe that’s somewhere between the Power Rangers and the Pink Ladies from “Grease.”
Then a sense of freaky unease creeps in. It becomes apparent that “Christy” is not really a sports movie at all, at least not as audiences have come to understand them.Christy isn’t inspiringly trained up like Rocky Balboa — she’s preternaturally talented — and she wins nearly all the bouts she fights. That’s just not what this is.Rather, the film is an often ugly character study of a hard life that only got worse the more famous Martin got.Born Christy Salters, her domineering West Virginia mother Joyce (Merritt Wever) disapproved of accurate rumors that her daughter was a lesbian... More

Film Description
Featuring a career-best performance from Sydney Sweeney (TIFF ’24’s Eden), the latest from David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) chronicles pioneering boxer Christy Martin's fierce story of self-actualization in the face of terrifying adversity.

By turns devastating and triumphant, the latest from Australian auteur David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) chronicles the astonishing life of pioneering women’s boxer Christy Martin. Featuring career-best performances from Sydney Sweeney (TIFF ’24’s Eden) and Ben Foster (TIFF ’24’s Sharp Corner), Christy is a fierce tale of self-actualization in the face of terrifying adversity.Born in West Virginia — her nickname, “Coal Miner's Daughter,” derives from her father's profession — Christy (Sweeney) excelled at sports and attended college on a basketball scholarship. In the late 1980s, she starts fighting in — and winning — “Toughwoman” contests before beginning training with boxing coach Jim Martin (Foster) and embarking on what will prove to be a hugely successful career in a still-nascent sport.Despite a 25-year age difference, Christy and Jim marry, intensifying a codependency exacerbated by drug use, financial malfeasance, and acts of physical and psychological abuse. Just as Christy is making historic strides in her sport, she's forced to contend with a horrendous private life — climaxing in an act that nearly kills her.Written by Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes, Christy doesn't shy away from the harsh side of its subject's story, but neither does it sensationalize brutality. Dealing with themes of misogyny, domestic violence, and sexual identity, the film does justice to Christy's journey by being frank about the obstacles she overcame.Foster exposes the darkness driving the man who was first Christy’s champion and then her tormenter, but the heart of this film lies with Sweeney, who disappears into this role of a woman who confronted many demons as she fought her way to the top.

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