‘I Play Rocky’ Debuts With a Surprisingly Mixed Rotten Tomatoes Score Despite Its Standing Ovation

Peter Farrelly has spent the years since his Best Picture win for ‘Green Book’ searching for another true story capable of delivering that same crowd-pleasing emotional punch. With ‘I Play Rocky,’ he’s turned his attention to one of Hollywood’s most legendary underdog tales, not the story told within 1976’s ‘Rocky’ itself, but the equally improbable story of how that film ever got made in the first place.

The movie follows a young, broke Sylvester Stallone, played by Anthony Ippolito, as he bets everything on himself rather than cashing a life-changing check to sell his script and walk away from the lead role entirely. Rounding out the cast are AnnaSophia Robb, Matt Dillon as Stallone’s hardened father, Stephan James as the late Carl Weathers, and Jay Duplass playing director John G. Avildsen, alongside Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Robert Morgan, and Tracy Letts.

That underdog framing extended straight into the film’s own premiere. ‘I Play Rocky’ reportedly earned a standing ovation at its Toronto International Film Festival debut, with early reactions from journalists on the ground describing the crowd’s response as overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Despite that reception, though, the film has now debuted with a noticeably more modest 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on its first batch of critic reviews.

That gap between in-room enthusiasm and critical consensus has made for one of the more surprising storylines to come out of this year’s festival lineup. Farrelly, introducing the film’s trailer at CinemaCon earlier this year, described it as a movie made for anyone who’s ever been “naive and stubborn enough to chase their dream into reality,” a sentiment that captures exactly the kind of underdog spirit the film is built around.

‘I PLAY ROCKY’ debuts with 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. https://t.co/tZse8dCI7N

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 13, 2026

Individual reviews paint a more complicated picture than the aggregate score alone suggests. Several critics have been genuinely effusive, with one outlet calling it among the year’s best movies to date and among the strongest films ever made about the mechanics of Hollywood moviemaking, while another praised Ippolito’s performance as so convincingly Stallone that it barely registered as an impression at all.

The first trailer for ‘I PLAY ROCKY’ has been released.

The film follows a young Sylvester Stallone & the dramatic journey it took to get ‘ROCKY’ made.

In theaters on November 20. pic.twitter.com/yg5ePlhW43

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 15, 2026

Not every reaction has been quite so glowing, though. Some reviewers have pointed to an uneven script that occasionally leans too hard into cuteness, along with cinematography that feels closer to a streaming movie than a theatrical awards contender. One review specifically noted that the film never quite reaches the same grandiose emotional peak as the original ‘Rocky’ itself, even while praising Tracy Letts’ performance and the film’s overall heart and humor.

That tension between an emotionally rousing true story and some inconsistent execution seems to be exactly what’s producing such a mixed critical snapshot this early in the film’s rollout. With only ten reviews currently factored into its Rotten Tomatoes score, that number remains highly likely to shift, for better or worse, as more critics weigh in ahead of the film’s wider theatrical release.

Whether ‘I Play Rocky’ ultimately settles into fresher territory or stays anchored in this more divisive range will say a lot about how broader audiences respond to yet another Hollywood film examining its own industry’s mythology. Given how much goodwill Farrelly built with ‘Green Book,’ expectations were clearly high heading into this festival run.

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