CHRISTY Red Carpet Premieres

With CHRISTY, director David Michôd (ANIMAL KINGDOM) tells the gripping true story of a sporting icon who refused to be defeated — both in and out of the ring. Sydney Sweeney delivers a career-defining performance as Christy Martin, the trailblazing boxer who became a household name in the 1990s, publicly transforming women’s boxing while privately enduring unimaginable hardships. When we meet Sweeney’s Christy, she is a headstrong young woman fighting “Toughwoman” contests in small-town West Virginia just for kicks, until a promoter spots her raw talent for knocking down an opponent with one right hook. Christy soon begins an unlikely rise from obscurity to national boxing stardom as the infamous “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” but behind her public triumphs and unflappably tough exterior lie harrowing personal battles, as her relationship with coach-turned-husband Jim Martin (Ben Foster) becomes a dark and controlling force, entangled with addiction, abuse and secrecy around her sexual identity as a queer woman. Michôd’s unflinching direction — paired with a powerful script co-written with Mirrah Foulkes — both employs and subverts sports drama tropes to great effect, refusing to sensationalize Christy’s almost-unbelievable true story and instead offering a raw yet compassionate portrait of survival against the odds, infused with moments of humor and warmth. Sweeney fully inhabits Christy’s grit, ambition and ultimate resilience while Foster brings layered menace to the man who is both a mentor and a monster. The stellar supporting cast — including Merritt Wever, Ethan Embry, Katy O’Brian, Tony Cavalero and Chad L. Coleman, who excels as legendary promoter Don King in some of the film’s lighter moments — lend depth and nuance to the film’s domestic and boxing world settings. At once devastating and empowering, CHRISTY is a powerful testament to the fight for selfhood and a celebration of an unconventional hero’s journey to personal victory. –Abbie Algar