Directed by:
Antoine FuquaScreenplay:
Kurt SutterCinematography:
Mauro FioreComposer:
James HornerCast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, 50 Cent, Oona Laurence, Skylan Brooks, Beau Knapp, Rachel McAdams, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Gomez, Dominic Colón (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Billy "The Great" Hope (Gyllenhaal) is the reigning Junior Middleweight Champion whose unorthodox stance, the so-called "Southpaw," consists of an ineloquent, though brutal, display of offensive fighting...one fueled by his own feelings of inadequacy and a desperate need for love, money and fame. With a beautiful family, home and financial security, Billy is on top both in and out of the ring until a tragic accident leaves his wife dead and sends him into a downward spiral. His days now an endless haze of alcohol and prescription drugs, his daughter taken by Child Services and his home repossessed by the bank, Billy's fate is all but sealed until a washed up former boxer named Tick agrees to take the bereaved pugilist under his wing so long as he agrees to his strict ethos. Relentless and utterly committed to a fighter that thinks as much as he throws punches, Tick rebuilds Billy into a new man: one that is agile, fearsome and uncompromising in the ring while thoughtful, loving and disciplined outside of it. Now, as he works to regain custody of his daughter and mounts a professional comeback, Billy must face his demons head-on as he learns that, sometimes, your greatest opponent can be yourself. (Entertainment One)
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Reviews (12)
I like boxing movies and I feel like it's hard to make one that's actually bad. This one isn't great overall, but it has great moments, and you can see on Fuqua's part that he knows how to shoot a great scene, not just action, but also sports scenes. Some shots from the ring are just fantastic, even though on the emotional level, it's somewhat superficial.
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The essential driving force of the sports drama Southpaw is clearly Jake Gyllenhaal, without whose excellent performance it would be just a rather mediocre movie from a boxing environment with a very predictable plot. Who else caught my eye was the charismatic Forest Whitaker, who was a very decent support for Jake. (65%)
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Why does everybody give Southpaw three stars? Because it’s fine in terms of craftsmanship, it has quite a few emotionally tense moments, the ring scenes are very naturalistic thanks to the contact camerawork, and the two outstanding actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker, wring their talents to the last drop of sweat and blood. But why only three stars? Because nothing happens that we wouldn’t have expected in advance today (the only seemingly surprising twist is revealed in the distributor's blurb). After all, "fine in terms of craftsmanship" today is any project with such budget and cast, and then if we were to put this film’s level of emotion on some imaginary ring facing Warrior, the mentally unstable champion Billy Hope, his cliché-ridden sporting and moral reboot, and the routine Uncle Fugua would all walk away ignominiously defeated by a painful knockout. Good ol’ three stars… ;)
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Jake Gyllenhaal was the reason why I watched this movie, but I was a bit worried about the director. Antoine Fuqua makes technically sound movies. So, the action sequences usually work out well. But it’s worse when it comes to emotions, dialogues and all other scenes that contain no action. In other words, most of the movie. Antione fails terribly at that and I actually thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish the movie and that I was going to go to bed instead. I haven’t seen such a boring and worthless movie for a long time. There are plenty of boxing dramas and I think every single one of them was better than Southpaw.
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I guess I haven't seen any boxing movies yet, but I was still able to guess which character would be in which type of shot TEN MINUTES IN ADVANCE! So, thanks a bunch, Kurt. It's more interesting to watch Fuqua being able to handle this assignment with alternating formal styles. The documentary "talking heads", zoomed in camera during big fights, changing the focus between multiple actors, the hand-held close-ups on faces and dark toning as the hero writhes at rock bottom, and then that quiet simple classic montage style of preparing for the climax. This actually subtly tells you what the film should have been about in the first place, because it seems to me that Hollywood is currently over-indulging in whiny whiny whiners, however much they're played by Oscar-chasing aces like Gyllenhaal. Which is actually kind of funny, because I think the little girl is outperforming everybody.
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