‘Christy’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Throws a Convincing Enough Punch, but David Michôd’s Boxing Movie Never Transcends Bio-Drama Formula

Starting with his breakthrough feature, the simmering Australian crime family saga Animal Kingdom, David Michôd has leaned frequently into dark material. There’s grit but also lugubriousness in Christy, an inspirational sports movie that morphs in somewhat ungainly style into an unflinching depiction of domestic violence. It’s only when that ugliness creeps in that the director seems fully engaged. Until then, it’s a pedestrian and numbingly repetitive drama in which the stakes just never seem all that high. We watch Sydney Sweeney as real-life ‘90s boxing star Christy Martin land one power punch after another, felling a stream of opponents without ever acquiring much dimension as a character.

Opening in early November, the film will be the inaugural release for the newly formed U.S. distribution arm of indie production outfit Black Bear. They better hope not too many of their potential audience have caught up with Rachel Morrison’s The Fire Inside,…