Tag Archives: sydney-sweeney

Christy

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Christy is a biopic of female boxer Christy Martin’s rise in the world of women boxing and her subsequent abusive relationship with her coach/husband James Martin. This is a film that I rented off Fandango at Home. It was one of the biggest flops of the year at the box office, which is truly a shame because the movie is tremendous.

I thought both Sydney Sweeney, who played Christy, and Ben Foster, who played James, did spectacular jobs. Sydney Sweeney was practically unrecognizable and, had I not known this was her in the lead role, I never would have guessed it.

Christy followed its titular character through her discovery when she won a tough person contest. She was brought into a gym and she showed off her skills at punching to James Martin. He began training her and prepared her to lead the way in the world of female boxing.

Christy had a relationship with another woman, which was frowned upon by her mother Joyce (Merritt Wever). The family sent Christy away to train with James and to control her. James immediately began to show his attempts to control Christy through manipulation. He pushed himself into a relationship with her and was able to get her to agree to marry him.

That was a major mistake. He showed himself to be not only controlling, but also abusive, as he hit her and strangled her during their marriage. While this was going on, he was skimming from the money earned by Christy from her fights. He even went as far as to say that if she ever left him, he would kill her.

It is a fascinating tale as a female boxer, who was one of the first and most dominate female boxers in the sport, would have troubles with an abusive husband. From the outside, you would think that she could take care of herself, but her boxing was not able to prevent his violence.

The third act events were shocking and brutal. I came into it without any knowledge of the life of Christy Martin and, if you can, I would recommend you do the same thing. It was a tough story.

This is a movie that should have done better at the box office. It did not deserve the audiences to desert it as they did. Hopefully, this will find an audience on streaming because this is an important story for people to see.

4 stars

The Housemaid

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When I first saw a trailer for this movie, I thought to myself, “This is like the Hand that Rocked the Cradle.” I said this to a friend of mine and she said that it was not anything like that. She mentioned that it was originally in a novel by Freida McFadden, which I did not know. I decided that I would give this a chance. My friend was right, this was not in that subgenre of horror film where the babysitter tries to do crazy things for reasons.

According to IMDB, “A struggling young woman is relieved by the chance for a fresh start as a maid for a wealthy couple. Soon, she discovers that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.”

This one has its ups and downs for me. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think the three main cast members, Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, do a fantastic job with what the story asks of them. They have great chemistry with each other and are very believable in everything that they do.

One of my problems though is I hate it when people do stupid things in a thriller. There are several things that Sweeney’s character Millie does that makes me want to yell at the screen. Couldn’t she see this coming? Maybe at first, but as the film moved on, why are you not recognizing what is going on? I hate it when the characters do really stupid things.

The end of the movie was fun, but I did see it coming. There was something that, when mentioned in the beginning of the film, I knew was going to come back around as a major piece later in the film, and sure enough, I was right.

There was also a section near the beginning of the third act of the film where suddenly we were doing a ton of exposition, explaining what had gone down. I thought this was a weak point of the movie.

The Housemaid feels like Hollywood camp, but in a glorious way. It feels as if everyone involved understands the assignment in this story and are ready to give it their all. There are weaknesses in the film, but I think I came out of it more positive than negative.

3 stars

Reality (2023)

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June 29, 2024

It is the penultimate film in the 2024 June Swoon today on June 29th and it was one on Max called Reality.

I was not sure why the title of the movie was Reality, but soon I learned that it was named after the main character, Reality Winner, a real life American intelligence leaker from 2017. The film itself is based on the recordings from the real life interview of Reality Winner by the FBI as they searched her home for any evidence that she had sent classified materials to an online publication.

Sydney Sweeney played Reality and she did a fantastic job. This was one of my favorite performances for Sweeney and from this you can see why she is considered one of the up-and-comers in the world of entertainment.

The dialogue of the movie reportedly came directly from the recordings of the day, including a bunch of the small talk that ensued between Reality and the FBI agents, specifically with agents Garrick (Josh Hamilton) and Taylor (Marchánt Davis). Some of the dialogue was uncomfortable and could be considered cringe, but you could feel the tension of the moment with every word.

The film does a cool thing when it comes to parts of the questioning that needed to stay confidential. The film does a glitch type thing and reappears after the part is done. This is a clever way to conceal info that needed to remain hidden.

Tina Satter directed the film, which she also co-wrote. She had originally adapted the transcript into a stage play entitled Is This a Room. Reality was Satter’s first directorial debut.

The film was well done and highlights the talents of Sydney Sweeney. It is available for streaming on HBO Max.

Immaculate

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Sydney Sweeney has now appeared in two of the worst movies of 2024. First, Madame Web and now this religious themed horror movie, Immaculate.

According to IMDB, “Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.“

I should not single out Sydney Sweeney, because there is no doubt that she is the absolutely best part of this fart of a movie. Her performance is savage, and she dominates her screen time.

The problem is that the film is just not very good.

The first hour of the movie was very dull and it spent the entire time throwing jump scares at the audience where the music suddenly spikes loudly, only to see nothing in particular. It was one of the most prolific uses of jump scares I have seen in quite awhile.

While the film’s premise had some promise, the film just goes off the rails in the third act, settling for shocking moments over any sort of storytelling. While I appreciate some of the swings it took in that final act, particularly right at the end, it depends on shock to create emotion in the audience, not anything to do with character or story elements.

Sydney Sweeney was really good in this. She gave it her all. The material was just not up to the quality of her performance.

1.3 stars