VIFF‘25: Christy

I was able to see Christy in a press screening in the Vancouver International Film Festival and this movie is directed by David Michod and stars Sydney Sweeney and Ben Foster, it tells the real life story of Christy Martin, the first female boxing champion in the world, and how her life was shaped by a variety of circustances.

Christy is a biopic that mostly works because of the actors, Sydney Sweeney offers a great performance as Christy Martin, disappearing in the role and often she was categorized of the sexy girl type in movies, here, Sweeney gives everything she has as an actor and demostrates when she fully commits, she can deliver wonders.

Ben Foster plays her ex-husband in the film and Foster is oustanding as a character who constantly lies to make for a living. David Michod directs this movie in the most standard way possible, it doesn‘t have much substance or any interest in making this film watchable in the first two acts.

The main problem with this film is that it doesn‘t know what kind of biopic it wants to be, and often tries to find his footing, but the pacing confuses. The script doesn‘t try anything new to the genre, and based on his real life experiences, they often dramatize too much to make the film even more interesting, but they decide what film is it, until the last 20 minutes and that‘s a really difficult choice.

The music in this film is almost non-existent, the production design sells the movie for me, because it feels like we are in the 80s and feels like Christy Martin was living a life there and often films are like pretty standard in the way the technical aspects are basic, but Christy manages to build a good technical aspect.

The editing in the first act is one of the downgrades, because in this moment, you can‘t get a head around of what type of biopic is it. The problem with the movie is that Christy‘s story is not the most extravagant, it‘s filled with drama, triump and tragedy, but the main focus could have been where to start the movie… in the rising of his boxing roots or about his complicated relationship with her ex-husband? Is a story about survival? The film tries to aim for everything to make it work, but doesn‘t reach any subject.

Watching Christy at VIFF, I couldn‘t get the feeling that this could have been an awesome film if the script was better and have some risks. We get a film that plays it too safe and leaning into a basic formula to tell a complicated story.

By the end, you appreciate more the dedicated work of Sydney Sweeney in a standard biopic that doesn‘t take risks and goes into the simple route to tell a story.