As the female boxer who put the sport on the map, Christy Martin’s story would always be worthy of being told. But the boxing drama, a staple of Hollywood sports movies, has nearly always been framed by male fighters clawing their way to a championship, overcoming personal demons and family troubles to do it. David Michôd’s brutally dark but also crowd-pleasing Christy could never follow such a cliche path, because the female journey in a sport dominated by violent men could never be such a thing. It’s a physical, transformative role for star Sydney Sweeney who, let’s be honest, has had a couple of duds over the last few months, but she rebounds here in a film that asks her to be tough, vulnerable, and a harder hitter than any man who dared step in her way.
Christy Salters (Sweeney) was already a slugger before she ever laced up the gloves as a professional fighter. She was winning Toughman competitions for money and to help get out her aggression, fueled by stifling conservative parents (played by an infuriating Merritt Wever and Ethan Embry) who refuse to accept their daughter’s homosexuality. Instead, they drive her girlfriend Rosie (Jess Gabor) away, and force Christy to pretend to be something that she’s not. This would become a trend for her, pretending to be one thing to please someone else.
The worst example of Christy hiding her true self comes when she meets weak, pathetic boxing trainer Jim Martin, played by a typically hammy Ben Foster. Jim doesn’t think women’s boxing has a future and tries to brush Christy aside until he sees her talent…and that there’s money to make with her. And she, in turn, dresses herself up in pink and hitches her life and career to him, because boxing is the one thing she is great at, and Jim says he’s the guy who can make her the best. So she becomes his wife even though it’s not her truest self, and leads that disguised life for years as she battles her way to becoming the highest-paid female boxer in the world.
Christy is never a movie about Martin’s quest for gold, it’s about an entirely different kind of fight. While there are aspects of your typical boxing drama, the high of being the best and the inevitable taste of defeat, that stuff’s just in the first hour. The real fight happens later, when Christy has to fight off abuses at home, the dismissive attitude of her family at times of need, and the risk of getting screwed by shady promoters like Don King (played impressively by Chad L. Coleman).
The big wins in Christy don’t happen in the ring, nor do her biggest losses. Spanning from 1989 all the way to 2010, the film covers a lot of ground, and Sweeney, who packed on 30+ lbs of muscle for the role, delivers a career-best performance, capturing Martin’s swagger that made her a great trailblazer for the sport. We also see another strong performance from Katy O’Brian as Lisa Holewyne, Christy’s one-time rival-turned-frenemy, and much later, her wife. O’Brian showed how she could be both intimidating and sensitive in Love Lies Bleeding and some of that can be found here, as well. Foster has stumbled into overacting of late (as he does in Motor City, also here at TIFF), but his being a ham works here because Jim is such a sad, pitiful loser that he always needs to be the center of attention. Jim is a fragile loser, but even losers can be dangerous.
Michôd’s best known for his grim Aussie thrillers such as Animal Kingdom and The Rover, and while Martin’s story is ultimately one of triumph, it spirals down really dark territory, culminating in a shocking act of violence that is tough to watch unfold. Again, the worst things that happen to Martin aren’t in the ring. The actual in-ring action is exciting, quick, bloody, no-frills stuff and Sweeney acclimates herself well to it.
Christy doesn’t try to convince us that its subject is an angel. She’s imperfect, a bit of an a-hole, but by the end of the movie there’s some acknowledgement of the mistakes she’s made on her journey to the top. For Sweeney, the buzz has been that this is the role that will get some awards attention. We’ll see about that. She’s definitely put in the work to make Christy Martin someone we want to see score a knockout against those who would keep her down on the mat. Martin’s story doesn’t fit the mold of your usual boxing drama, and the best thing about Christy is that it never tries to.
Black Bear will release Christy in theaters on November 7th.
