Christy (2025)

Sydney Sweeney dresses down, weights up, and goes through the "ugly actor process" (not unlike Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine) to portray real life figure Christy Salters, a tough as nails fighter who busts her ass to make her mark on women's boxing while suffering through sexism, homophobia and domestic abuse. As cynical as I am about these biopics, this is both a harrowing and inspiring story with standout performances by Sweeney and Ben Foster; although, if you've seen one sports underdog movie, you've seen 'em all.

3 pockets full of change out of 5

The Running Man (2025)

A totalitarian, dystopian game show seemed oddly prescient back in 1982 when King's novel was first published. In 2025, it's depressingly accurate. 

This new adaptation by Edgar Wright attempts to be more faithful to the source material about an everyman who competes on a reality show for a large cash prize by surviving for 30 days in a city full of hunters. This is an extraordinarily stupid movie full of bad decisions that somehow succeeds in making the 1987 film seem more competent by comparison. It's quite a feat.

1½ lucky socks out of 5

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Kristen Stewart plays a gym manager who falls in love with a female bodybuilder in this self-described lesbian neo-noir crime thriller (not unlike Bound). I dug this one, though I can't really nail down the reason why. Maybe it's the recreation of that gritty 1980s bodybuilding era. I like that the women are real antiheroes, straight up shooting steroids and taking names. Even though they don't earn our sympathies, we support them because they're going up against the evil tyranny. There's a lot of wild shit going on, but it has a certain magical realism attached to it that makes it feel memorable to me, logic be damned.

3 syringes between the toes out of 5