Anthony Ippolito is an absolute revelation in Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, a semi-biopic about Sylvester Stallone’s battle to play the lead in his coveted script. As heartfelt and as moving as the original released in 1976 about a down on his luck boxer who is given the chance to fight the world champion on national television for the US Bicentennial, I Play Rocky mirrors its themes beautifully, a well-thought out, genuinely heartwarming tale of believing in yourself, trusting the process and never giving up.
“Mike” Stallone is an equally down on his luck actor, alternating between low paying jobs and auditions to make rent. When he meets Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb) at the cinema where he works, they fall in love and move in together with the dog he rescued from the streets, Butkus. Sasha encourages him to write his own film, and thanks to a friend, the script ends up in front of Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler, who decide to take a chance on it. But Mike, now using his real name Sylvester, has one condition – he plays Rocky. The film tracks the battle he undertook to be cast in his own script as an unknown, and the difficulties on set thereafter, marked by limited budgets and challenging crew members. The stakes are low of course – we all know that Rocky was a phenomenal success, and that “Sly” as he is now known is still an A-lister with an impressive track record behind him despite a Raspberry here and there. Yet what Farrelly gives us instead is something that, despite the trials and tribulations, manages to stir concern for its central characters, and ultimately ends up being one of the most beautiful feel-good films of the year.
There is no doubt that, just like Rocky, I Play Rocky’s star makes it. Ippolito is magnetic as Sly in his youth, a dead ringer in looks and in movements and voice, emulating him down to a tee. His commitment to the role, both in preparation and onscreen, is nothing short of wondrous, especially when watching both films in quick succession as I did. He is, well and truly, faultless. Robb is equally wonderful as his wife Sasha, a mirror to Talia Shire’s Adrian, though the latter has a fair bit more impact on the overall storyline – it is a shame that Sasha is mentioned as a photographer in this and yet we never see her take a single one. She is more support system and sounding board than involved wife and woman, with no side story of her own, something that Adrian was given in Rocky in the form of the pet shop and her alcoholic brother Paulie (Burt Young). Neither of them are necessarily positive attributes but nevertheless, they accorded her a certain character development, and if anything, an explanation in regard to her trademark shyness. There is no doubt, though, that the film is more about Rocky/Sly than it is about anyone else, and so it is natural that all or most characters are given limited development. The added storyline of the actual film within the film however does mean that producers Chartoff (Toby Kebbell) and Irwin (P. J. Byrne), along with the visceral Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts), a composite character of several Universal Artists executives, are given a lot more screentime than Sandy is. Yet, upon a closer look, even they haven’t an inkling of a personality or homelife – no, I Play Rocky is about a film, and the man at the centre of that film. In this sense, it can be a little one-faceted at times, but this matters little when there are so many twists and turns, and fun to be had. There is much to dream about too – high-flying executives taking a chance on a complete unknown is something almost unheard of in the modern world. To all creatives, then, Stallone’s story and Farrelly’s rendition of it isn’t just a joyous story of how one of the greatest films of all time got made – it is a fairytale.
I Play Rocky screened at the London Film Festival and is in UK cinemas now.
