Heartland Film Festival Movie Review: ‘I Play Rocky’

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Review by James Lindorf

It’s been fifty years since “Rocky” opened, and a little boxing movie about an underdog became an all-time classic. Now, “I Play Rocky” asks how a struggling actor with a slur in his speech and two producers with very little money got it made. Sylvester Stallone has said he has “zero” to do with this, only learning about it after it was announced, which makes it an odd kind of tribute. At the helm is Peter Farrelly, best known for working with his brother Bobby on “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s Something About Mary,” but he also directed the Best Picture winner “Green Book” on his own. He is armed with an underdog story written by Peter Gamble and a budget a little under $30 million, four to five times what the original cost when adjusted for inflation. “I Play Rocky” premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and will open in limited theaters on November 6th before going nationwide on the 20th through Amazon MGM Studios.

Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) dreams of becoming an actor, but with little luck so far, he starts writing to make inroads in the industry. Inspired by the 1975 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, Stallone and his wife Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb) write almost nonstop over the next three days to create Rocky. With backing from producers Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell), he will take on executive Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts) for the right to play Rocky. Sylvester may get tentative approval, but he learns that achieving his dream of being cast as the lead in a movie is only the start of a lot of hard work. The supporting cast includes Matt Dillon as Frank Stallone Sr., Stephan James as Carl Weathers, Jay Duplass as director John G. Avildsen, and Kiki Seto as Talia Shire.

The performances in “I Play Rocky” are sound across the board, but Ippolito is stellar. He shines brightest when he is “ad-libbing” the scene between Rocky and Mickey. It captures the performance in the original film and adds layers based on what we learned about Stallone and his relationship with his father in this movie. Ippolito also shines in a gas station scene with his dog and two strangers, when he is at his lowest point and struggling to buy food. Ippolito and Robb have great chemistry at points, though not early on. The sparks come once they play a married couple, and their energy is dynamic whether they are writing or fighting. Their dedication to each other and his dream is impressive. With Maddox’s offers to buy the script this movie could have ended at 45 minutes, and they could have lived a very comfortable life. Because of their stubbornness and belief in him, they took that risk, and they were proven right. “Rocky” is now a classic, and he is a Hollywood legend. However, fame has its price, and the real-life couple later divorced, citing the distance a Hollywood career creates.

Among the supporting cast, Jay Duplass steals every scene he is in. His sharp, pessimistic humor perfectly balances the hopefulness of the rest of the story. Letts is great as the generic studio head, a my way or the highway jerk who is partly right, since he is behind the funding. He is Scrooge before his three visitors, waiting to be woken up to the idea that making art or helping people could be greater rewards than money. He is an initial roadblock, but he also adds tension later in the film by threatening to replace Stallone if production falls behind even one day.

Matt Dillon is good as Stallone’s father, but nothing about the role makes you feel it had to be Dillon. He has a long history with Farrelly, so it feels like friends getting back together. If I had to cut a chunk of time, it would be Frank, even if that would make the Mickey scene less impactful. Stephan James brings great Apollo-like energy as Weathers but has an audition scene, a funny moment in the boxing ring, and not much else. Seto is the most underserved of the group. The film asks her to do a voice, and while we spend enough time with Ippolito to get over the initial discomfort of his, we don’t get the same chance with her. They should have made her stand out more or stand out less.

The film looks great. The mid-70s feel accurate, though it looks better than anything shot then thanks to 50 years of camera advances. The second half has a different challenge: recreating what Rocky and the other characters wore in the original film. The music is fine, but the standout was always going to be “Gonna Fly Now,” which is the definitive Rocky song to me, not “Eye of the Tiger,” which didn’t show up until the third movie. At just over two hours, it could be a little shorter, but it would be a matter of trimming moments instead of removing them. The three stages, pre-script, getting it greenlit, and making the movie, all work toward the same goal but have different energy, and that keeps it fresh.

“I Play Rocky” is funny, but in a more natural way than Farrelly’s earlier films, and even though it reaches for your heartstrings, it will still get a belly laugh or two along the way. It is a tribute, so Stallone’s flaws are mostly surface-level. Without Stallone’s involvement, they could have gone deeper into his problems, or into the dark side of Hollywood through Maddox, but this movie is as much about passion, drive, and hope as “Rocky.” The element that brings down the score the most for me is that Stallone and Shire have very distinct voices, and the actors were asked to imitate them. Sometimes it is flattering; other times, it is a distraction. I don’t think it was necessary, since we know who they are playing, but it is what they wanted, and it is mostly successful. I found it distracting at first before finally being able to accept it or at least ignore it. That is a tough place to start from without nitpicking the movie to death.

“The Disaster Artist” is probably the best comparison, since both films are driven by the passion of a central figure that many would call crazy for what they go through to get a film made. The difference is talent, and the lack of it, which is why the two end up in such different places. This one is for fans of the “Rocky” series and anyone who enjoys a story of perseverance. Stallone was willing to risk everything to make his dream come true, and you can’t help but root for that. Experienced directing and talented acting keep “I Play Rocky” from going cartoonish and let it earn many of the same emotions “Rocky” did 50 years ago, and that is a 4.25 out of 5 for me.

Rating: PG-13 (Brief Sexual Material|Strong Language|Smoking)
Genre: Drama, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): November 6th, 2026, Limited
Release Date (Wide): November 20th, 2026
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director: Peter Farrelly
Producer: Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha, Paul Currie, Peter Farrelly, Michele Weiss
Screenwriter: Peter Gamble
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Production Co: Fireside Films, Baha Productions