Twenty-eight-year-old Sydney Sweeney is fast becoming one of Hollywood’s “hottest” celebrities. Her sometime co-star Zendaya is considered more exotic and alluring, but there’s something altogether distinctive about Sweeney’s retro blonde-and–blue-eyed “persona.” Critics say it’s just her ample bosom, which she eagerly flaunts at every turn, and her sultry self-confident swagger. And, despite her age, her pursed lips and defiant poutiness suggest a woman forever stuck in Teen World. Her legion of fans — young Gen Z women and even younger — love her for it and eagerly cheer her on, while her growing chorus of detractors — dubbed “Sweeney haters” — cast a disparaging eye.

Sweeney and her publicists have already positioned her as a culture “disruptor” based on her penchant for causing controversy with virtually every new photo shoot. Whether it’s subtly riffing on racism in her now-notorious American Eagle blue jeans ads or raising the hackles of Old School feminists for using Photoshop to edit herself as unrealistically über-thin — even posing as a lithe ballerina, in one recent shoot — Sweeney has become quite the “It Girl,” plus a topic of endless gossip and riffing around the water cooler and beyond.

But can she act? Fans of the popular TV series “Euphoria,” depicting a dark demimonde of drug addicts struggling with mental health issues, consider her a real phenom, though she’s not the main character, and despite two Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actress in 2022 (another was for her role in a separate series, “The White Lotus”) she has not taken home an award in several seasons for either show. And the verdict on her more prodigious theatrical ventures — the kind that might transform her into a true “movie star” — is still pending. In fact, her first modest film premiere, which appeared just as the American Eagle ad controversy was raging, was deemed a box office flop. But Sweeney continues to soldier on, amid much hype, with a string of new full-length movies in which she plays the female lead. I decided to delve into her biggest 2025 film debut, “Christy,” curious to see if all the Sweeney buzz was justified. My own verdict is mixed.

For one thing, the story of a doomed-but-determined female boxing phenom who rises from poverty and obscurity to become a champion is far from novel. In fact, the broad narrative in “Christy” so closely parallels that of Clint Eastwood’s 2004 “Million Dollar Baby,” for which he and his female lead, Hilary Swank, both won Oscars, that one senses the producers simply hoped to cash in on their predecessor’s immense commercial and critical appeal. In both films, a boxing upstart triumphs in the ring only to be brought down cruelly by jealous adversity. If you were moved by Swank’s once-in-a-lifetime performance a generation ago (in fact, two, if you include her role in “Boys Don’t Cry”), you’ll inevitably be looking to see how Sweeney’s “Christy” performance measures up. Were the producers simply counting on movie audience amnesia: that a new generation of younger moviegoers might never have seen Eastwood’s highly praised film released more than twenty years earlier?

I did find Sweeney’s performance compelling in conveying the disappointment, heartache, and sheer terror of an addict struggling with her internal and external demons, including her semi-closeted gay identity and her abusive and murderous spouse. In fact, Hollywood has mined this same territory before, in films like “Girl, Interrupted,” which made Angelina Jolie a breakout star, and Sweeney’s own portrayal of surviving coming-of-age family dysfunction is often grueling and one with which young women can surely identify. But she too often seemed to be straining to conjure up the appropriate nuance of emotion. The intensity is there, but there’s more sweat and grit than gravitas.

Part of the problem is the script, which opts for a melodramatic biopic, and its attendant tropes, over a more layered story. Her character is based on the real-life Christy Martin, the first female boxer ever to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. In some ways it’s a feminist empowerment tale, but the real-life Christy’s own poor judgment, and the seeming collapse of personal boundaries into toxic enmeshment with friends and lovers, makes her story of triumph seem somewhat suspect, though perhaps sadly believable, too. Because she ultimately embraces her female lover, many in the LGBTQ community will applaud the story and celebrate Sweeney’s performance. It’s intense and earnest, while the dialogue remains flimsy and unconvincing. For many moviegoers connecting with the film emotionally — as so many did with Eastwood and Swank — may prove difficult in the end. You’re rooting for Sweeney, who went through a remarkable personal transformation, gaining weight and altering her facial features to capture her real-life subject more authentically. But the film fails to connect convincingly at too many crucial points in the narrative (and especially throughout the final third) for the viewer to invest in this story deeply.

And the boxing itself? Sweeney reportedly trained for the role for months, and the hard shots she takes and delivers in the ring are pretty convincing. The film highlights Martin’s rural West Virginia roots and generally hardscrabble life with an air of gritty — and bloody — realism. She was bullied early on, and her pugilistic instincts never left her, but surviving her recurring battles also left her scarred and vulnerable, and in the end, almost defeated her. Sweeney’s own struggle for recognition and acclaim amid the slings and arrows that fly continually in Hollywood has been far easier, of course. Her newest film “Housemaid” has been well received, and on the heels of its seeming success (the film has already grossed nearly $300 million against a budget of just $35 million, Sweeney’s biggest breakthrough to date), a sequel is already in the works. But her chorus of social media detractors is loud and growing. Her controversial bad-girl sexiness is eminently bankable, for now, and despite persistently mixed acting reviews, she’s rising rather effortlessly. But she better watch out: Fame of this kind can prove fleeting, and as Swank’s character in “Million Dollar Baby” tragically discovered, invariably someone, somewhere is planning to strike a rabbit punch.