‘I Play Rocky’ review: A salute to Sylvester Stallone and a love letter to Hollywood

Peter Farrelly’s film I Play Rocky is out in theatres a few weeks after the publication of Sylvester Stallone’s memoir The Steps, about the Hollywood star’s journey until his blockbuster film Rocky (1976). Both the movie and the book are about the impossible becoming possible because of one man’s self-belief – also known as the perfect Hollywood ending.

In New York City in the 1970s, the aspiring actor who still goes by the name of Mike Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) is barely getting by. Egged on by his girlfriend Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb), Stallone adopts his real name, Sylvester, and bangs out a few scripts. One of them, about the boxer Rocky’s determination to succeed, interests producers Irwin Winkler (PJ Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell).

They like what they have read, but they don’t care for Stallone’s insistence that he will play the hero. Neither does studio head Sandy (Tracy Letts), who will be bankrolling Rocky. Having erased the line between himself and his fictional pugilist, Stallone digs in his heels and repeatedly says, “I play Rocky.”

Director John G Avildsen (Jay Duplass) strives to complete Rocky on schedule and within a minuscule budget. The economy involved in making Rocky carries over to the skilfully crafted I Play Rocky.

Peter Gamble’s screenplay is the model of crispness. Peter Farrelly too mimics Rocky’s gritty aesthetic and scrappy filmmaking.

The negotiations that get Rocky off the ground, the hiccups during the production, Stallone’s equation with his father Frank Stallone Sr (Matt Dillon), Sasha’s unwavering support and inputs at crucial junctures – I Play Rocky races through the highlights, while always ensuring that the spotlight stays on Stallone.

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Lead actor Anthony Ippolito’s impersonation of Stallone’s unusual speech patterns and body language is as uncannily accurate as his channelling of Stallone’s chutzpah. The other actors, including Stephan James as Carl Weathers, who plays Apollo Creed in Rocky, and Kiko Seto as Talia Shire, playing Rocky’s girlfriend Adrian, shrink into the shadows as Ippolito’s Stallone gets to work.

PJ Byrne and Toby Kebbell, as Rocky’s producers, and Jay Duplass, as Rocky’s director, have more substantial scenes. The performers shrug and wink their way through the entertaining in-joke moments about how movies get made in Hollywood.

I Play Rocky sells a dream-within-a dream, of a struggler’s bid for the big league that is recognised by enlightened producers. Rocky went on to win three Oscars, including for Best Picture. The feel-good, lightweight and fleet I Play Rocky too makes an unabashed bid for Hollywood’s top honour.

The film is a double-handed salute to Stallone’s persistence and Hollywood’s accommodation of untested talent. There is none of the darkness that hangs over backroom accounts of how Hollywood stifles the imagination or crushes the soul. Stallone’s ordeal is somewhat diminished by the 128-minute narrative, which is equally keen on sending a love letter to good old Hollywood.

Peter Farrelly’s movie is an exemplar of the kind of uncomplicated crowd pleasers that Hollywood used to churn out and that used to win Oscars. Such movies were simple to follow and easy to fall for. They were accompanied by a voiceover that typically said, “You Will Laugh. You Will Cry. You Will Cheer.” One of them was Rocky in 1976.

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Also read:

How Sylvester Stallone fought to change the original ending of his blockbuster film ‘Rocky’