I didn’t do any research before walking into the theater to watch “Christy,” and you shouldn’t, either.
In the Twin Cities Film Fest-selected film, director David Michôd reveals the jaw-dropping true story of Christy Martin, who put women’s boxing on the map, and digs deeper into the topics of women and sexuality throughout the ‘90s and into the early 2010s.
The film starts in West Virginia, where Christy Martin, played by Sydney Sweeney, grows up in a coal mining family. It quickly gets into her boxing when she starts competing in high school as a hobby rather than a career path.
As she rises to fame as the first well-known woman boxer, she meets Jim Martin, played by Ben Foster, who becomes more than just her trainer, and the film continues to explore the real emotions the Martins didn’t show to the public.
Before this film, I had never been blown away by Sweeney’s performances because she’s been typecast as the blonde, skinny female love interest too many times. In her roles in “Euphoria” or “Anyone But You,” she looks like Sydney Sweeney, and not the character. Honestly, Sweeney needed a comeback from the American Eagle scandal, and this might just be it.
In this film, her physical transformation is unbelievable, and I had to keep reminding myself throughout the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes that it was Sweeney.
For the role, she gained 30 pounds and trained in weightlifting and kickboxing every day. This changes her from the 2025 conventionally attractive actress to a sweet small-town girl in the ‘90s who genuinely found a love for beating people up.
The film delves into not just her conquests in the ring, but also her struggles outside. As the film follows her journey fighting with her conservative loved ones, hiding her true self from the public and conforming to conventional beauty standards, it becomes clear this is the film 2025 needed.
The scrutiny over a woman’s life with or without a man was a theme that was carried throughout the film, as well as how women constantly feel the need to conform to society’s expectations for them.
Unfortunately, I immediately thought that not much is different in today’s society.
I could write for days about how Christy’s family dynamic connects to today’s strict political divide, or how being part of the LGBTQ+ community while in the public eye is challenging for her and still is for many people now. But those themes weaved in and out of the film, while the overarching struggle Christy deals with is how little power she has, simply because she is a woman.
Christy Martin is treated like an object, and her career is controlled by men: the people who pay her, who put her on magazine covers, and the most controlling of them all is her husband.
Ben Foster played Jim Martin as a wonderful representation of a walking red flag.
In the film, Jim is described as a “family man,” which lines up with his actions. He is violent and, quite frankly, embarrassed by his wife based on her performance in the ring.
Christy is constantly brought back to her hometown girlfriend Rosie, played by Jess Gabor. Because of this, Jim basically turns into a baby trapped in an adult man’s body, reflecting how truly insecure a man can get.
Yes, he was the one who helped get Christy to the top, but the pressure and violence that she endures to get there stand out more than any of the matches won.
This film visualizes the life of a woman dominating in a predominantly-male sport by focusing on situations women have been dealing with for basically forever. It’s a reminder that talent isn’t defined by sex, and stories like this deserve to go the full 10 rounds.
Abby Madsen can be reached at mads3817@stthomas.edu.
