Here’s the first trailer for David Michôd’s “Christy,” fresh off its TIFF premiere last week. Reviews have been mixed (63% on Rotten Tomatoes and 57 on Metacritic), but like Dwayne Johnson in “Smashing Machine,” the film has quickly become one of those showcases built around the surprise takeaway: “oh, they can actually act.”
This year’s thin Best Actress race could benefit Sweeney’s awards trajectory. “Christy” will be the first release via Black Bear’s new distribution arm, which has given it an awards-friendly theatrical release date of Nov. 7.
In “Christy”—Michôd’s bruised and brutal biopic of boxer Christy Martin—Sweeney indeed delivers a strong performance. I’m not surprised. Anyone who actually sat through “Reality”—that extraordinary, underseen HBO experiment where she carried the movie as a real-life NSA whistleblower, with nothing but her own nerves—knew Sweeney wasn’t just another pretty face.
In “Christy,” Sweeney takes on the role of the real-life Martin who became the face of women’s boxing in the ’90s, only to see her career and life spiral after years in a controlling and abusive marriage to her trainer Jim Martin, played here by Ben Foster. Michôd co-wrote the script with Mirrah Foulkes after watching the Netflix doc “Untold: Deal With the Devil,” and has described the film as part underdog sports drama, part harrowing survival story.
Sweeney’s transformation is significant — she previously stated having gained more than 30 pounds for the role, going on a diet of milkshakes. Then again, what Sweeney does here isn’t transformation in the fussy, prosthetic Oscar baity sense. It’s more unnerving than that. Sweeney doesn’t vanish into Christy; she lets Christy emerge through her.
The frustrating part about this film is that the script clumsily ticks the boxes—abusive husband, repressive mother (Merritt Wever), the triumphs, the plunge into drugs. You can feel Michôd tugging the strings, dragging us from beat to beat.
The tragedy is that Christy Martin herself was anything but conventional—and the movie that pretends to honor her life insists on being exactly that. It’s really too bad because Sweeney absolutely shows up for the fight. I wouldn’t be surprised if an Oscar nomination is coming her way.
Remember when, back in August, we learned “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” would be playing in only around 350 U.S. theaters, "maybe fewer"? Well, it's fewer. A lot fewer.