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A Super-Strong Sydney Sweeney Propels ‘Christy,’ a Fairly Traditional Sports Biopic

Rae Alexandra
Sweeney fully embodies pro boxer Christy Martin in all her sweating, bleeding, irrepressible glory.
A white woman snarls and sweats inside a boxing ring triumphantly, wearing pink and white tank and shorts, and red boxing gloves.
Sydney Sweeney stars as Christy Martin in ‘Christy.’ (Josh Lawson/Black Bear)

As movie lovers everywhere know, if you’re an actor hoping to get your hands on an Academy Award, transforming yourself for a role will usually increase your chances. Think Charlize Theron in Monster, Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye or Brendan Fraser in The Whale, to name just a few.

Making pretty people look uglier isn’t a surefire route to Oscar glory, of course (lest we forget Mikey Madison’s win for Anora last year), but it sure seems to help. Sydney Sweeney’s willingness to gain 30 pounds and chew on a mouth guard for her role as boxing champ Christy Martin, then, automatically throws her into Oscar-contender territory.

But it’s not just Sweeney’s transformation that has Christy readymade for awards season. As a super-traditional sports biopic in which hardship is ever-present for the movie’s dogged protagonist, Christy screams Oscar bait from the get-go.

The real-life Martin hailed from a West Virginia coal mining family, and led the way for women in boxing when few even realized women would want to do such a thing. Martin proved that female fighters could be every bit as fierce as their male counterparts, first arriving in the ring in 1989 after discovering her prodigious ability to knock other humans out. Martin was the first woman to ever sign with infamous promoter Don King, and the first woman inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. Now 57, she also happens to be a lesbian who spent 20 years trapped in an abusive to her trainer, Jim Martin.

Christy is a mostly compelling endeavor, even when it slips into predictable territory. That’s thanks almost entirely to Sweeney, who portrays Martin’s complexities in realistic, sympathetic ways, including Martin’s shame and embarrassment over her sexuality. Regardless of how you might perceive Sweeney in other roles, she moves with the realistic gait of a professional boxer here: jabbing, spitting, panting, pouring blood and landing realistic, heavy punches at every turn. Sweeney’s embodiment of Martin is complete and laudable.

Needless to say, viewers who don’t wish to see Sweeney — or any woman for that matter — getting regularly pummeled in the face for two hours and 15 minutes should approach Christy with caution.

Less successful is Ben Foster’s portrayal of Martin’s monstrous husband — due in no small part to the heavy make-up he’s forced to act through. (It’s proof that uglifying the actors doesn’t always work.) Despite Foster’s face remaining inscrutable throughout, his portrayal of the aging trainer sometimes lapses into the cartoonish. It’s not entirely the actor’s fault; as unflattering as Jim Martin’s hair was in real life, Foster’s increasingly thinning toupée is a distraction throughout Christy.

A much wiser casting is real-life boxer Naomi Graham in the role of Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s champion boxer daughter). Martin’s 2003 fight against Ali was nothing short of brutal, due to the fact that Martin was much older and smaller than her opponent. (In real life, Ali credited Martin for inspiring her to start boxing in the first place.) Christy’s recreation of that match is as visceral and agonizing to watch as the real thing, and Graham’s intimidating presence in the ring is a key factor.

Other casting wins include Merritt Wever as Martin’s well-meaning but homophobic mom, and Chad L. Coleman’s pitch-perfect rendition of Don King. A little more onscreen time for Coleman would have been nice.

In the end, what won me over with Christy was a big surprise, about three quarters of the way through, that made me literally shout “Oh my God!” at the screen. Viewers already familiar with Martin’s life story won’t be able to experience that moment with the same degree of shock and awe that I did. If you don’t already know what happened to Martin, stay away from Google.

Looking back on Martin’s extraordinary life and career, it’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for Christy to happen. Hers is a story that deserves a big-screen rendering, and this is absolutely a decent one. Because there is little here that usurps the tone of classic, prestige biopics, however, I did find myself longing at times for a fresher tonal approach, à la I, Tonya or even Black KKKlansman — both bleak true stories made more palatable by unique approaches.

So, does Sydney Sweeney still have a chance at winning an Oscar for Christy? Let’s just say if she does, it will have very little to do with the weight gain.

‘Christy’ is released nationwide on Nov. 7, 2025.

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