Christy (2025)

Christy checks every box on the sports-biopic form, and you can feel the movie glancing down at the clipboard. Small-town nobody, surprise win, gruff coach, big promoter, big fight, big fall. It’s the true story of a boxer fighting for her career and her safety, and David Michôd polishes it so smooth that the everyday moments, the ones that make a life feel lived, get skipped. Sydney Sweeney is the reason to watch. She disappears into Christy Salters, a college basketball player in 1989 West Virginia who takes a local women’s boxing contest and isn’t sure she even wants to box. The rise is the fun part: signing with Don King, beating Deirdre Gogarty at the MGM Grand in the first women’s fight sold on pay-per-view, landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It holds a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes and made $2.34 million worldwide on a reported $15M. A 5.8 because Sweeney fights harder than the script does. $8,353 says you catch yourself cheering out loud during the Gogarty fight, alone on your couch.

What works: Sydney Sweeney disappears into the role, and the rise, from a local contest to a pay-per-view headliner, has real punch.

What doesn’t: It follows the sports-biopic formula beat for beat, and the glossy treatment skips the everyday moments that would make Christy’s life feel lived in.

Who it’s for: Boxing fans, and anyone curious to see Sydney Sweeney take a big swing outside her usual lane.