Watch: Sydney Sweeney Trailer for ‘Christy’ on HOF boxer Christy Martin
The Sydney Sweeney trailer for the film wherein she portrays acclaimed boxer Christy Martin has had a trailer drop in the lead up to the broader cinematic release. ‘Christy’ will see Sweeney portray the titular figure Christy Martin with the theatrical release taking place on November 7th.
The International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee overcame a tumultuous personal life that was rife with abuse which Christy Martin pushed through to become one of the key pioneering figures for women’s boxing throughout the 1990’s.
Sweeney was present at the Toronto International Film Festival recently where the world premiere of ‘Christy’ took place. The role saw the former White Lotus actor undergo a physical transformation for the part with Sydney Sweeney mentioning, while speaking to Variety at TIFF, that she put on thirty pounds to portray Christy Martin on the big screen. As she got into the particulars of how she went about doing that, Sweeney said [via Variety],
“I had a nutritionist work with me as well as a weight trainer and a boxing trainer. We upped my calorie intake and I started taking a lot of protein shakes and supplements and eating everything. I ate a lot of Smuckers, a lot of PB and J sandwiches, milkshakes, kind of just constantly always eating because we were so active. I was constantly burning it all off at the same time. So keeping it all up was quite a challenge.”
Sydney Sweeney portrayal of ‘Christy’ receives some mixed reviews
Sydney Sweeney has clearly put a lot of effort into this portrayal, as evidenced by altering her biochemistry for it, but how are the film buffs receiving this movie so far? Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman gave the proverbial thumbs up to ‘Christy’ as Gleiberman stated,
“True-note, game-changing knockout of a performance. It’s fun to see her in the ring, hunched and concentrated, pummeling away, then felling an opponent with a merciless left hook — but whenever that happens, her ebullience comes out. She grins in triumph and pumps her fists in the air like a kid at her own birthday party; the pleasure she takes in winning is part of what makes her a star.”
Conversely, BBC did not heaping glowing praise on the sweet science-focused cinematic effort helmed by Sydney Sweeney and in an excerpt of that review for ‘Christy’, Caryn James quipped,
“For almost all of its running time, David Michôd’s film is just one more underdog sports story… Sweeney does a fine job of at least suggesting how Christy, without much support around her, is bullied into submission. And there’s no denying that the film pushes a lot of buttons, offering everything from an archetypal sports underdog to an actor’s remarkable physical change.”
“The problem is that the truly inspiring story of surviving abuse doesn’t kick in until quite late in the film. Meanwhile, there is boxing. Sweeney looks athletic, but the choreographed fight scenes aren’t very convincing. Still, it does seem unbalanced that there is so much visceral violence in the boxing sequences while the domestic abuse happens off screen.”
“Having said that, the fact that Christy overcomes the odds in the end had the audience cheering at the Toronto screening, so those buttons are pushed effectively for some viewers.”
