commitment

If you see “Christy,” you’ll remember Christy the person, not “Christy” the movie. This biopic of West Virginia’s other famous coal miner’s daughter Christy Martin, the first female boxer to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, is an efficiently inspiring and harrowing one when the physically transformed, emotionally present Sydney Sweeney is holding the screen as Martin. But otherwise, under David Michôd’s direction, it’s one more machine-pressed product that may as well have been chatbot-prompted into existence.

That’s a shame because early on, when butch, athletic, semi-openly gay Christy is just a picked-on high schooler punching her way into feeling good about herself, you can detect a keen level of attention, especially in the script by Mirrah Foulkes and Michôd, to what’s unspoken in these types of tales: the violence and verve that can mark a boxing talent and the pressure to conform in a male-dominated sport. In this case, it leads Christy to deny a part of her identity.

It’s a very specific tension that has made movies about female boxers in the 21st century — from “Girlfight” and “Million Dollar Baby” through last year’s “The Fire Inside” — so much more interesting as empowerment case studies than the male-centered ones, which still seem rooted in conventional mythmaking. (We’re still living in the Rocky Balboa Universe.)

As memorably conveyed with twang, sweat and tenacity by Sweeney, the young Christy is a natural competitor whose fists give her an out from the judgmental eyes of small-town life, most notably those of her mom (an effectively chilly Merritt Wever). She fights as if she’s been attacked, but can make winning in the ring look both spirited and a foregone conclusion.

That energy and commitment to turn boxing into a career gets an opportunistic fine-tuning — a feminizing pink kit — when she’s hooked up with trainer Jim Martin, played by an eerily dead-eyed Ben Foster as the ghoul-in-waiting he turned out to be. Foster’s Jim, believably disturbed and shady but a bit on the nose, isn’t the movie’s first problem. That would be Michôd’s addiction to montage-ifying every significant dramatic turning point, slathering on the music to keep the timeline moving.

But the famously chameleonic Foster’s portrayal is the film’s most curious dilemma, because it doesn’t allow us to see why Christy would trust her future to his judgment, much less marry him. It’s as if “Christy,” looking backward through a bloody yet unbowed lens, is afraid of presenting Jim Martin as anything but a shifty sleazebag, when what that does is undercut Sweeney’s more delicate job of convincing us why she’d stay with him for decades.

Sweeney manages it anyway, because, despite what you may have assumed, she’s a sturdy in-the-moment actor, especially with her eyes. Still, the movie’s lack of nuance about how toxic relationships develop makes this central twosome a head-scratchingly imbalanced one. Everyone invariably falls into two camps: unfailingly supportive (a sensitive dad played by Ethan Embry; Katy O’Brian as a former rival) or, whenever Wever reappears, jaw-dropping callousness. Much more galvanizing as a combo platter of high-wattage persuasion and dominance is Chad L. Coleman in his handful of scenes as Don King.

The central problem with “Christy” — which needs to be both uplifting about its star subject’s achievement and complex about her journey of sexuality and trauma — is that it screams for a treatment grittier than the slick melodrama we’ve been given. It’s all highlights and lowlights, rarely interested in the in-between stuff that makes watching all the rounds of a bout so necessary to appreciating what it means to survive on the canvas.

WASHINGTON — Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the agreement on Friday, saying it upholds the university’s academic freedom while restoring more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.

The university agreed to pay $30 million directly to the U.S. government along with another $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers.

Kotlikoff said the agreement revives the campus’ partnership with the federal government “while affirming the university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence, and institutional autonomy that, from our founding, have been integral to our excellence.”

The six-page agreement is similar to one signed by the University of Virginia last month. It’s shorter and less prescriptive than others signed by Columbia University and Brown University.

It requires Cornell to comply with the government’s interpretation of civil rights laws on issues involving antisemitism, racial discrimination and transgender issues. A Justice Department memo that orders colleges to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion programs and transgender-friendly policies will be used as a training resource for faculty and staff at Cornell.

The campus must also provide a wealth of admissions data that the government has separately sought from campuses to ensure race is no longer being considered as a factor in admissions decisions. President Trump has suggested some campuses are ignoring a 2023 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in admissions.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a “transformative commitment” that puts a focus on “merit, rigor, and truth-seeking.”

“These reforms are a huge win in the fight to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools the greatest in the world,” McMahon said on X.

Cornell’s president must personally certify compliance with the agreement each quarter. The deal is effective through the end of 2028.

It appears to split the difference on a contentious issue colleges have grappled with as they negotiate an exit from federal scrutiny: payments made directly to the government. Columbia agreed to pay $200 million directly to the government, while Brown University reached an agreement to pay $50 million to state workforce organizations. Virginia’s deal included no payment at all.

Binkley writes for the Associated Press.

The couple were notably absent from a crucial episode

The final stretch is nearly here for this year’s Married at First Sight UK couples, who tied the knot with complete strangers just weeks ago.

Recent episodes on E4 have shown some pairs flourishing as they’ve built connections, whilst others have endured emotional breakdowns, startling revelations and fierce rows.

With final vows looming, the remaining participants faced a crucial decision at Tuesday evening’s (November 4) final commitment ceremony about whether to remain in the experiment.

But in an unexpected twist, one couple failed to show up, prompting expert Mel Schilling to address the assembled group.

She said: “It’s been incredible to see all your journeys unfold with your time with us. This is the last time that you get to bring your marriage to the couch and share with us where you’re at at this pivotal stage in the experiment and make that final decision on whether to stay or leave”, reports OK!

“Before we begin, obviously you’ll all notice that Grace and Ashley are not with us today, they’ve had a rocky couple of weeks and as a result, felt they needed more time to reflect and they won’t be joining us today.”

The pair – who spent homestays week apart – had both been contemplating their future together, with Ashley removing his wedding band when audiences last saw him.

He admitted that he and Grace might be “too different”, whilst she became tearful and claimed she’d witnessed a side of Ashley that nobody else had seen. She also accused him of making her feel like she was the “problem” and that their marriage was “doomed”.

Grace referred back to earlier rows they’d had over Ashley wanting her to wear a dress for a particular dinner and offering to get her nails done, disputing the way she recalled those conversations.

“I would sit on that couch, hear him twisting things to be more positive and favourable to him, sometimes I take issue with him about something, and he’d be like, no I didn’t, and I’d be like, well how do I argue with you now?” she said.

“I felt really isolated,” she continued, becoming emotional as she spoke about her self-doubt and questioned whether she’d misunderstood their relationship.

“Why am I the only person that sees him this way? No, he is doing this, he wants me to feel apologetic, contrived, he wants to be begged for forgiveness so he can feel in control. It’s the self-doubt that’s getting me down,” she cried. “I’ve had enough.”

Meanwhile, Ashley confessed that he and Grace weren’t “in the best place”, adding: “We’ve both put so much into this, I don’t know what to do, every relationship takes compromise, but we’ve both compromised and now we’re at a stage where she’s now what I need and I’m not what she needs.

“I do have feelings for her, and I do care for her, but I need Grace to be a different person, and I feel like she needs me to be a different person.”

Taking off his wedding ring and expressing his feeling of being “out of options”, Ashley added: “I can’t physically do any more to prove to her who I am as a person.”

Married At First Sight UK airs at 9pm on E4.