Australian director-writer team Dave Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes have joined up with Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney to produce one of the most intense cinematic experiences of the year.

Their biopic Christy begins as a familiar story of the gutsy underdog athlete, Christy Martin, America’s first breakthrough female boxing champion, but transforms into a can’t-look-away horror story about coercive control.

Sweeney — who attracted criticism this year following her appearance in an American Eagle denim commercial — is almost unrecognisable in the role of the stocky brash boxer from West Virginia.

Speaking to 7.30 from London, Sweeney described Christy Martin as “the most full of energy and life, the most incredible woman I’ve ever met”.

“To be honest, I didn’t know who Christy was before I read the script,” she said.

Being that person involved a transformation for Sweeney.

“You have to train every day,” she said.

“Weight training morning and night, boxing all day. So that’s a physical and mental challenge on its own.

“And then the emotional and mental preparation to play Christie was its own battle.”

The role required multiple scenes of tough boxing bouts. Michôd (writer-director of The King, starring Timothee Chalamet, and Australian classic Animal Kingdom) was convinced by her previous roles that Sweeney had the necessary skill as an actor but had to wait to see her perform in the ring.

“It was very important to me from the outset that the fighting feels real … as much as I tried to control it,” Michôd told 7.30.

‘A kind of gay boxing drama about domestic violence’

While much of the focus of the recent Christy press tour centred around Sweeney’s transformation into the muscular, female fighter — the first female star in the stable of legendary boxing promoter Don King — the emotional power in this movie lies in the pivot to the unfolding domestic violence Christy endured at the hands of her coach-husband Jim Martin.

The film changes gear as Martin’s insidious grip on his young protege tightens. Over time he draws Christy into a seedy drug-fuelled existence, threatened by her success and the reappearance of her former girlfriend, Rosie, played by Jess Gabor.

“I was drawn immediately to wanting to understand how those kinds of relationships function,” Michôd said.

Co-writer Mirrah Foulks said Christy’s story provided a narrative to portray the bitter dynamics of coercive control.

“What Dave and I saw in Christy’s story was the opportunity to wrap it (domestic violence) in something that was very familiar to audiences, the cinematic cannon of underdog sporting movies,” she said.

“It’s a kind of gay boxing drama about domestic violence and coercive control.”

What’s happening in Hollywood?

After a successful premier at the Toronto film festival, the film followed a pattern of star vehicles failing at the box office this northern summer.

Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Dwayne Johnson and Austin Butler, amongst others, have all failed to draw in cinema audiences this year.

According to trade magazine Variety the failures present an existential crisis for cinema. The current battle for control of Warner Bros Discovery between Paramount and streaming giant Netflix is only increasing fears about the viability of the cinema going model.

For this viewer, Christy is a film best experienced in the cinema, in company with others: watching Martin’s life reach its darkly realised denouement with Michôd’s direction becoming almost stiflingly intense.

For the film makers, waiting for Christy Martin’s response to seeing the film about herself for the first time was the real test. Michôd says they waited in Sydney for a call from LA.

“We were sick with anxiety. The surrender we were asking for was huge. Then Christy and (her partner) Lisa called and said, ‘No notes. We love it.’ We cried.”

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