Christy review: Don’t be distracted by Sydney Sweeney – Christy Martin’s story is a powerful watch

In the media circus that currently surrounds Sydney “great jeans” Sweeney, no one has suffered more than first lady of boxing, Christy Martin.

When it was announced in May 2024 that the Euphoria and The White Lotus actress would be playing the former fighter in her eponymous biopic Christy, Sweeney was just that: the Euphoria and The White Lotus actress.

In the 18 months since, Sweeney has become less actress, more actor – unintentionally perhaps – in an increasingly absurd political climate.

The grizzly details have been chewed over so much that they barely need expanding, but in brief: she starred in a July jean ad for American Eagle, which ran with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” – which was construed by some as promoting white superiority. Sweeney refused to address her critics.

Donald Trump praised the ad. Leaked records indicated that Sweeney was a registered Republican months before Trump was elected. Over the course of a summer, she became internet bait, a pin-up for the right wing, and America’s most talked about starlet.

And then came her next project: Christy. The release was never going to be a smooth road to success, given the controversy around Sweeney, but few could predict quite how much of a stinker it would be at the US box office. In its first week, it registered one of the lowest performing openings in box office history; in its second, its box office declined by almost 100 per cent, setting a record for the biggest ever second week drop.

The people of America love to watch Sydney Sweeney, it seems, just not on the big screen.

Now Christy arrives in UK cinemas, and if it lands the same fate, it will be an unsurprising but unfortunate shame.

Sweeney is lucky here to be portraying a woman with a life story so obviously destined for cinema.

Beginning in 1989, the film follows Sweeney as Christy Martin, born in 1968 in small town West Virginia to homophobic parents, through closeted, insecure teendom, and into the glitz and glory of being the woman who put women’s boxing on the map.

Her rise to the top via the esteem of being Don King’s first female signatory arrives parallel to the misery turned abject terror of her relationship with her coach and coercer, the nefarious Jim Martin (Ben Foster) – whom she marries despite her homosexuality. Vicious and slimy, Jim controls Christy’s every personal and professional decision, as the people she once depended on drift out of her life like smoke.

Christy is hard-nosed with arrogant, insolent tendencies, but she is clearly troubled by her marriage, her gruelling industry, and the pressure to achieve. Though physically veiled thinly by a shaggy mullet, uneven accent and a 35lbs weight gain, Sweeney is evidently enveloped more by the characterisation of Christy than of any of her previous roles. She plays Christy with mixed bravado and bubbling vulnerability, and while apparent Oscar buzz might be a little excessive, it’s an impressive performance nonetheless. It now takes a lot of heft for Sweeney to transport the audience away from her external persona, and here she manages it – just.

Director David Michôd pulls off the film’s many boxing ring battles with magnetic effect, while Christy’s relationship with her mother (Merritt Wever) and rival-turned-eventual-lover Lisa Holewyne (Katy O’Brian) are fittingly frustrating. Foster succeeds in being suitably revolting as Jim, and some of the later, nail-biting moments between him and Christy led to audible gasps in the cinema I was in. 

“There are elements of emotional complexity missing”

Christy could do with being a little more rough-hewn, as it is carved into a fairly glossy, by-the-book sports biopic. There’s struggle followed by success followed by struggle again, and while it’s representative of Christy’s life, it’s not quite set apart from others in the genre, despite her uniquely fascinating story.

Perhaps that’s because, despite its 135 minutes run time, there are elements of emotional complexity missing: the undeniable trauma of being closeted during her marriage is largely untouched, while Jim coercing Christy into drug abuse is swiftly glossed over. 

Most disappointing is that, in an age of Republican attempts to erase LGBTQ+ history, here is the brutal and brilliant story of one of the most influential queer women in sport on the big screen, yet it has been so completely overshadowed by the star at its centre. So few people have and likely will see Christy, which feels like a gross injustice both for Christy Martin personally, and for the fight to keep LGBTQ+ history alive. I can only hope that it resurfaces at a time where Sweeney is less of a lightning rod for internet culture wars.

Christy is in UK cinemas from 28 November.

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