I’m a lifelong Rocky fan. I saw I Play Rocky. I loved it. It made me cry. That’s the review. 10/10.

Peter Farrelly’s movie, from Amazon MGM Studios, is in select theaters now and goes wide on November 20. The official hook is the one every Rocky person already carries around: a young, unknown Sylvester Stallone — played by Anthony Ippolito — has an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky. He was meant to be Rocky Balboa. He gets told no at every turn, bets everything on himself, and will not let go of playing the lead. Amazon calls it the underdog story behind the underdog movie. If you’ve loved this character for most of your life, you already know why that one was going to get its hands on me.

Farrelly directs from a script by Peter Gamble. Ippolito is Stallone. The official company also includes AnnaSophia Robb, Matt Dillon, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Stephan James, and Kiki Seto. It’s PG-13 and it runs 2 hours and 8 minutes. Fireside Films and Baha Productions made it. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before the limited opening on November 6.

I’m not going to invent a scene-by-scene diary for a movie I already scored from the heart. I went in as a Rocky person, and it got me. It made me cry. I loved it. That’s a 10.

For whatever it’s worth, the early critic grid is with it too. As of November 12, Rotten Tomatoes has I Play Rocky at 87% from 115 reviews, with a 98% audience score, and the critics’ consensus says it "packs considerable punch thanks to Anthony Ippolito’s uncanny embodiment of Sly Stallone." Metacritic has it at a 68 — generally favorable — from 37 reviews. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called it a "cleverly crafted crowd-pleaser" and wrote that Ippolito "gets it just right." That’s them. The 10 is mine.

One personal note, and I won’t dress it up: my best friend passed away before he could see it with me. Bring tissues, and be ready to cry like a man.

The Verdict: 10/10