Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky allows for Anthony Ippolito to turn in a star-making performance in an otherwise run-of-the-mill biopic.
Director: Peter Farrelly
Genre: Biopic, Docudrama
Run Time: 128′
Rated: PG-13
U.S. Release: November 6, 2026 (limited); November 20, 2026 (wide)
U.K. Release: November 11, 2026
Where to Watch: In theaters
In March of 1975, struggling actor Sylvester Stallone was on the ropes. He was working as a valet to provide for his newly pregnant wife, striking out on auditions, being told he was both “too Italian” and “not Italian enough” for the wave of mob films changing Hollywood at the time and living fruitlessly despite doing everything in his power to make it. At the suggestion of his wife, Sasha, he took matters into his own hands and decided to write a script that would give him the opportunity to prove himself once and for all. After a three-day writing binge, the first draft of the script that would one day become Rocky was finalized.
Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky is an up-close character study of a man who, much like the titular character of Rocky, refused to let others define him or write him off for not fitting into their conventions of success. The film chronicles Stallone’s early career as an actor just trying to make it, all the way to the premiere of his debut feature film. It serves as a love letter to filmmakers and dreamers alike, underscoring the importance of backing yourself even if nobody else will.
I Play Rocky opens on young and heavily struggling actor Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito, of The Offer). Sylvester is having no luck in New York as he pursues his dreams, hoping they will bring him to the success he’s always envisioned for himself. He’s working odd jobs just to afford places to stay while he chases auditions and opportunities. When he begins working at a movie theater, he meets the woman who will change his life forever, Sasha Czack (AnnaSophia Robb, of Words on Bathroom Walls).
Sylvester is immediately enamoured with her; Sasha is skeptical of him at best. As they work together and get to know each other, Sasha becomes really transfixed with the multitudes Sylvester seems to hold. While he may look like a rough-and-tumble New York guy, he speaks about movies and acting and the world of entertainment with such a delicate and purely passionate curiosity. After being turned down for one audition after another, Sasha tells him the only way he’ll be able to get a role that will help make him a somebody is to write himself a role that can adequately show off his skills.
After the two marry and move out to Los Angeles to help chase his Hollywood dreams, Sylvester takes up work as a restaurant as a valet while writing in his free time. When one of the clients who’s a regular at the restaurant connects him with two big-time Hollywood producers, Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne, of The End of Oak Street) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell of War for the Planet of the Apes), Sylvester uses the opportunity to slip them one of his scripts he’s been working on.
After reading his script, Irwin and Robert realize Sylvester could be the real deal and ask if he has any other original work he could show them. While Sylvester does, none of them are sufficient enough for the producing duo to put their full power behind to try and get it made. Feeling like his dreams are too far out of reach, Sylvester goes to a local bar to drink his sorrows away, but instead catches the March 1975 heavyweight boxing matchup between Chuck Wepner and the reigning heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali.
The fight was supposed to be a cakewalk for Ali, but Wepner lasted for 15 rounds in the ring against an opponent no one even thought he should be fighting. Watching the matchup awoke something in Sylvester that reminded him of everything he put on the line to try and achieve his lifelong dreams. He went home that night and three days later had the first script for Rocky. Irwin and Robert immediately loved it and went to back the film’s production, but Sylvester had one request he refused to budge on: he plays Rocky.
I Play Rocky is a fun, light-hearted film that underscores the power of underdogs with hearts of champions, but does not work particularly hard to distinguish itself from other biopics in a meaningful way. While the film’s story is inspiring and a truly compelling context for one of the greatest sports films of all time, it catches itself basking in its own glory too often, trying to underscore moments and themes that are already heartily underlined and bolded.
The massive success the audience knows Rocky will go on to be is constantly being hinted at; we as the viewer are never waiting in true suspense to see if Sylvester’s dream will work out while they are in the stages of filming because it feels like the camera is winking at us, letting us know it’s all going to work out rather than building authentic suspense around the success of their project. I Play Rocky would have benefitted from trusting its audiences more to tie together the connections between Sylvester and Rocky and their hero’s journeys on their own rather than spell it out for them.
If one thing in particular sticks out amongst the film, it’s that Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone is incredible. His embodiment is uncanny, while never feeling cheap or too much like a young actor trying to impersonate a legend. Ippolito’s complete transformation and dedication allows the audience to easily escape into Stallone’s early days as a struggling actor, willing to do anything to allow him to say he acts for a living.
I Play Rocky, more than anything, is a love letter to the aspiring filmmakers out there who always feel like the underdog. While sometimes overstated, it’s earnest in its desire to tip its caps at disruptors of the industry that have changed it for the better with a central performance from Ippolito that makes you think he might be one of the next great disruptors. Farrelly’s movie champions those hustling and working as hard as humanly possible to achieve their dreams, showing viewers that sometimes the only path to success is the one you forge for yourself.
I Play Rocky (2026): Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
The true story of how Sylvester Stallone wrote and eventually starred in the 1976 classic film Rocky.
Pros:
- Anthony Ippolito’s depiction of a young Sylvester Stallone is a starmaking performance.
- A film made for film lovers and those deeply vested in the business side of the entertainment industry.
- The drive of the film really adds a sense of depth to the struggles that went into making Rocky while beautifully underlining the core principles behind Stallone’s debut work.
Cons:
- The film does not work terribly hard to distinguish itself from other run-of-the-mill biopics in a convincing way.
- No matter where the story was supposed to be taking place or where characters were meant to be from, it seemed everyone had thick New York accents.
- The themes of the story feel overstated.
I Play Rocky is out now in select theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, with additional theaters from November 13, and will be out nationwide on November 20. The film will be released in cinemas in the UK on November 11.