Toronto International Film Festival 2025: Christy
It is somewhat difficult to evaluate the myriad of biopics making the autumn festival circuit purely on their cinematic merits, since they come burdened with the expectation of kick-starting awards season. Whatever can be said about The Rock’s efforts to be taken seriously as an actor by portraying UFC champion Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine and hoping for accolades seems equally applicable to Sydney Sweeney’s full-body transformation in Christy.
Australian director David Michôd (The King) starts off his tale of trailblazing boxer Christy Salters in a paint-by-numbers manner: we establish her family life (tense relationship with her mother due to Christy’s attraction to women), her almost accidental way of finding an outlet in boxing and her battle to prove herself in this traditionally male sphere. However, the stranger-than-fiction life of this inspiring woman catches up to the film, as Christy’s marriage to her manager Jim Martin (played by Ben Foster) grows increasingly abusive.
With the feature premiering at TIFF, one cannot help but think back to its predecessors, I, Tonya and just last year, The Fire Inside. As much as these movies told the stories of real sportswomen, their poignant commentary on the enduring impact of class gave both unique selling points, making them memorable as something other than “Oscar bait”.
One wishes that Michôd hadn’t tried to accommodate everything remarkable about Christy in this one film and instead opted for a single plan of action and a definitive angle to drive the narrative. Due to the meandering first act, the viewer may feel rope-a-doped (to stay in boxing lingo) at the film’s sudden thriving in the second half, which focuses on the complicated relationship between Christy and Jim, and the paradox of being an invincible fighter in the ring, but utterly defenceless at home. The light the movie sheds on the strength and courage of intimate partner violence survivors is by far its strongest suit.
Foster gives a career-highlight performance, and Sweeney morphs into the part with such precision that the actress behind it fades away, and we are left with an immersive portrait of Christy. Unfortunately, there are some head-scratchers among the supporting cast. Merritt Weaver acts as a caricature of an antagonistic parent, rather than a real person. There is a single interesting detail to her character in the entire movie: she holds a tiny dog in her lap while watching her daughter fight and strokes it absentmindedly, almost lovingly, in the place where Christy just got injured. The danger of biopics that work so collaboratively with the subject is the bias of the narration. But one doesn’t need to condone Christy’s mother’s behaviour or downplay the harm she so evidently caused to portray her as a palpable human being rather than a textbook villain.
Against the backdrop of Christy Martin’s extraordinary life, Christy feels surprisingly conventional. However, the admiration for her is evident in every creative decision, and as the picture goes beyond the success story of a woman who made boxing history, it shines in its portrayal of resilience.
Selina Sondermann
Christy is released nationwide on 28th November 2025.
Watch the trailer for Christy here:
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