First Reactions Hail Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Origin Film as a ‘Masterpiece’ After Emotional TIFF Premiere

A film retracing Sylvester Stallone’s extraordinary battle to bring Rocky to the screen has received a rapturous response at the Toronto International Film Festival, with its unknown leading man emerging as one of the event’s biggest talking points.

I Play Rocky premiered at TIFF on Saturday, Sept. 12, and early viewers described the biographical drama as “magnificent,” “a winner” and one of the year’s best films. Anthony Ippolito, who plays a young Stallone, attracted particularly enthusiastic praise for a performance some viewers believe could carry him into the awards conversation.

The reception inside Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre appeared equally powerful. Audience members reportedly rose to their feet when the credits began, giving director Peter Farrelly’s film one of the festival’s most enthusiastic responses so far.

The underdog story behind Hollywood’s ultimate underdog

Long before Rocky became a cinematic landmark, Stallone was a struggling actor with little industry influence and a screenplay he believed could change his life.

The story followed Rocky Balboa, an obscure Philadelphia boxer unexpectedly offered a chance to face world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. Yet the struggle to make the movie proved almost as unlikely as the fictional fighter’s journey.

Studios were interested in purchasing Stallone’s screenplay, but he refused to accept a six-figure offer if it meant surrendering the leading role to a more established actor. Despite his precarious financial position, Stallone insisted that he had to play Rocky himself.

Producer Irwin Winkler, producer Robert Chartoff and director John G. Avildsen eventually helped bring the film to the screen with a budget of approximately $1 million.

Released in 1976, Rocky became the year’s highest-grossing film. It received 10 Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Picture and Best Director for Avildsen. Its success transformed Stallone from a largely unknown performer into one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars.

That remarkable parallel—a struggling actor refusing to abandon himself while writing about a boxer who refuses to stay down—forms the emotional foundation of I Play Rocky.

Anthony Ippolito earns ‘knockout’ praise

Farrelly, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Green Book and the co-director of comedies including There’s Something About Mary, directs from a screenplay by Peter Gamble.

Ippolito leads the film as Stallone, recreating the actor’s distinctive voice, physical presence and determination without losing sight of the insecurity beneath the familiar persona.

The 27-year-old previously portrayed a young Al Pacino in the 2022 miniseries The Offer, but I Play Rocky gives him his most prominent film role so far.

His casting carries its own underdog quality. Before the formal search had properly begun, Ippolito reportedly obtained the screenplay and filmed three audition scenes in his grandmother’s basement. When Farrelly saw the footage, the director said the decision had already been made.

“I looked at it and the search was over,” Farrelly recalled during the post-screening discussion. “That’s the guy. We didn’t have to go any further.”

Ippolito later said he was grateful that Farrelly and the producers had been willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar actor, a decision that closely reflects the story being told onscreen.

“The movie shows it’s not easy to be an actor sometimes and this is absolutely surreal,” he said.

Film journalist Brandon Davis praised the production as an emotional reminder of the inspiration and magic behind filmmaking, describing Ippolito’s performance as a “knockout.”

Other early viewers highlighted how closely the actor resembles Stallone in certain scenes, while one reaction called him a genuine contender for the year’s best performance.

TIFF audience delivers a standing ovation

The atmosphere inside the premiere became a major part of the early conversation surrounding the film.

Erik Davis reported that the entire theatre was already on its feet as the credits appeared, calling it the biggest reaction he had witnessed at TIFF to that point. Another attendee said they could not remember a recent festival audience responding to a movie so enthusiastically.

The reception has already placed I Play Rocky among the potential contenders for TIFF’s People’s Choice Award. Farrelly has travelled this path before: Green Book won the audience-voted prize at the festival in 2018 before going on to receive the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Associated Press described the new film as an immediate crowd-pleaser whose premiere response could position it as a dark-horse awards contender. AP’s TIFF coverage noted how quickly the audience rose to applaud after the screening.

Strong praise, but not universal approval

The first official reviews have been largely positive, although the film has not convinced every critic.

At the time of publication, I Play Rocky held a 76% critics’ score based on 21 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Some reviewers praised it as one of the year’s most satisfying crowd-pleasers. Deadline’s Pete Hammond called the film “a winner in every way” and said it delivers an emotional impact comparable to the original Rocky.

Johnny Oleksinski wrote that the movie becomes increasingly enjoyable as it progresses, adding that he would have happily watched another 15 minutes.

IndieWire offered a more measured assessment, observing that the film’s emotional techniques are sometimes visible but generally effective—especially when experienced alongside a large audience.

Other critics were considerably less enthusiastic. Screen International’s Robert Daniels dismissed the film as “uninventive” and overly dependent on imitation, while The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager described it as a “corny pantomime” that fails to match the significance of its subject.

The division reflects a broader debate surrounding Hollywood crowd-pleasers. I Play Rocky openly embraces familiar emotional beats and recreates moments from the original film, an approach some critics regard as overly sentimental but which appears to have resonated strongly with its first public audience.

Stallone has seen the finished film

Stallone was not directly involved in the production, making his response to the finished movie a source of considerable curiosity.

Farrelly admitted that he felt nervous when Stallone watched the film privately. According to the director, Stallone called immediately afterward and expressed his approval.

“Yeah, Sly liked it,” Farrelly told the TIFF audience.

Farrelly has also said he would not have moved forward with the production without first receiving Stallone’s blessing. The director viewed the real-life journey as an extension of Rocky Balboa’s own story: a man rejected repeatedly who refuses to compromise on the belief that he deserves his opportunity.

Reuters reported that Farrelly considers Stallone’s life the genuine Rocky story because the actor remained committed to playing the role even when selling the screenplay without himself would have offered immediate financial security. Reuters also confirmed Stallone’s positive response to the film.

A new chapter in the Rocky legacy

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The original Rocky ultimately grew into one of cinema’s most enduring franchises, producing eight sequels and spin-offs. The most recent entry, Creed III, was the first instalment not to feature Stallone as Rocky Balboa.

I Play Rocky approaches that legacy from a different direction. Instead of returning to the fictional boxer, it examines the struggling writer and actor who risked his only major opportunity because he refused to let anyone else play the character he had created.

Whether the film can carry its Toronto momentum through awards season remains uncertain, particularly while critical opinion is divided. But its first screening has already produced the kind of emotional audience reaction that cannot be manufactured through reviews alone.

For Ippolito, the experience also carries an unmistakable symmetry. An actor who was not widely known filmed an unsolicited audition in his grandmother’s basement, convinced that he was the person who should play Stallone. Decades earlier, Stallone had placed a similarly audacious bet on himself—and changed his life by refusing to accept no.