Southpaw (B or 3/4 stars)
Boxing flicks tend to follow a tried-&-true formula. There is rarely any ingenuity in what we're seeing. Tough guys training in gyms, brutal boxing matches, lots of profanity, tons of blood, a supportive (if nervous) wife, dilemmas, a road to redemption, etc.. There ARE outliers, such as Rocky, Scorsese's Raging Bull, & perhaps Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby ... but those are a rarity. THIS film, 'Southpaw' (directed by Antoine Fuqua) cannot be put in the same echelon as my 3 aforementioned films, but it IS emotional, engrossing, wonderfully performed, & tells a story more about relationships, than what's exactly going on in the ring.
As the film begins, Billy "The Great" Hope (a beefed-up Jake Gyllenhaal) is the beloved & undefeated light heavyweight boxing champion. But after his most recent fight, his loyal, loving, & wise wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), tells him that she is worried. His most recent bout in the ring was more brutal than usual, exacting great costs both physical & emotional and, Billy desperately needs a break from it all. Maureen simply wants him & their precocious daughter, Leila (impressive Oona Laurence), to have some time on their own, and to enjoy life as a family, with no fights/press/media/fans/stress or manager (Rapper '50 Cent') hungry to make the next $$ deal. Billy - now in his mid-30s - reluctantly agrees to this (out of love for his wife & child).
But at an ensuing charity event, Billy is heckled & hounded by a fellow boxer (Miguel Gomez) who's been challenging him to jump in the ring. Words are said, a fight breaks out, and a gun goes off ... setting off a horrifying chain of events that undoes Billy & leads him to the fight of his life. Destitute & depressed, Billy loses his family {in a way}, loses his endorsements, loses his license to fight, loses his home, & loses his will to live. Perhaps the only person who can hope to get him back on track and control his emotional volatility is Coach Titus "Tick" Wills (Forest Whitaker), owner of a rundown back-to-basics boxing gym. With Tick's tough-love approach, Billy may have one last chance to regain his self-respect, redeem himself in the eyes of his little girl, & be the 'great' champion he once was.
As mentioned above, 'Southpaw' can't be called original, nor can it be called a 'great' boxing film. But it is a compelling drama that shows boxing at its most brutal & dispiriting. If I fault anything about the movie, it's the formulaic script, but director Antoine Fuqua must be praised for keeping 'Southpaw' as fresh & interesting (visually & character-wise) as he can. He features a hard-driving hip-hop soundtrack that meshes well with boxing training scenes. Fuqua has his cinematographer (Mauro Fiore) focus on the intense realism & slick, sweaty, physical brutality of the boxing world -- there's lots of handheld camerawork, but nothing to induce vomiting.
Southpaw's main strength IS the acting, led by a completely transformed Jake Gyllenhaal. Gaunt, wiry, & bug-eyed in last yr.'s brilliant Nightcrawler, here, Jake is large, strong, brooding, ferocious, yet vulnerable ... sometimes all at once. Rapper Eminem was supposed to play this role a few years back. Having come from the streets, and having had some boxing experience, that could have been an intriguing movie but, that didn't pan out. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein picked up this project from the ashes & rejuvenated it with Gyllenhaal. Rachel McAdams brings great verisimilitude to the wife-of-an-athlete role; she also shares great chemistry with Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal also clicks with Forest Whitaker, who provides both an intensity & a warmth that this type of role requires. The whole cast is great.
One more element to note about this film is its musical score. It's not the best or anything (kinda emotionally manipulative ... you're bound to cry at least once, if not several times throughout this tearjerking boxing flick), but it is the recently deceased James Horner's final musical offering. The man is iconic for his work on such classics as Titanic & Braveheart and, this movie is dedicated to his memory {a lovely touch, I think}. So yeah, 'Southpaw' ain't perfect. It offers little in the way of twists or surprises, but it's still relatively engrossing; thanks to the depth of its characters & the performances. And I like that the narrative isn't all "Billy vs. a loathsome opponent" or "Billy vs. a world that hates him", but more of a "Billy vs. himself". And you can forget 'love interest complications' ... Billy's all for his family.
As the film begins, Billy "The Great" Hope (a beefed-up Jake Gyllenhaal) is the beloved & undefeated light heavyweight boxing champion. But after his most recent fight, his loyal, loving, & wise wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), tells him that she is worried. His most recent bout in the ring was more brutal than usual, exacting great costs both physical & emotional and, Billy desperately needs a break from it all. Maureen simply wants him & their precocious daughter, Leila (impressive Oona Laurence), to have some time on their own, and to enjoy life as a family, with no fights/press/media/fans/stress or manager (Rapper '50 Cent') hungry to make the next $$ deal. Billy - now in his mid-30s - reluctantly agrees to this (out of love for his wife & child).
But at an ensuing charity event, Billy is heckled & hounded by a fellow boxer (Miguel Gomez) who's been challenging him to jump in the ring. Words are said, a fight breaks out, and a gun goes off ... setting off a horrifying chain of events that undoes Billy & leads him to the fight of his life. Destitute & depressed, Billy loses his family {in a way}, loses his endorsements, loses his license to fight, loses his home, & loses his will to live. Perhaps the only person who can hope to get him back on track and control his emotional volatility is Coach Titus "Tick" Wills (Forest Whitaker), owner of a rundown back-to-basics boxing gym. With Tick's tough-love approach, Billy may have one last chance to regain his self-respect, redeem himself in the eyes of his little girl, & be the 'great' champion he once was.
As mentioned above, 'Southpaw' can't be called original, nor can it be called a 'great' boxing film. But it is a compelling drama that shows boxing at its most brutal & dispiriting. If I fault anything about the movie, it's the formulaic script, but director Antoine Fuqua must be praised for keeping 'Southpaw' as fresh & interesting (visually & character-wise) as he can. He features a hard-driving hip-hop soundtrack that meshes well with boxing training scenes. Fuqua has his cinematographer (Mauro Fiore) focus on the intense realism & slick, sweaty, physical brutality of the boxing world -- there's lots of handheld camerawork, but nothing to induce vomiting.
Southpaw's main strength IS the acting, led by a completely transformed Jake Gyllenhaal. Gaunt, wiry, & bug-eyed in last yr.'s brilliant Nightcrawler, here, Jake is large, strong, brooding, ferocious, yet vulnerable ... sometimes all at once. Rapper Eminem was supposed to play this role a few years back. Having come from the streets, and having had some boxing experience, that could have been an intriguing movie but, that didn't pan out. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein picked up this project from the ashes & rejuvenated it with Gyllenhaal. Rachel McAdams brings great verisimilitude to the wife-of-an-athlete role; she also shares great chemistry with Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal also clicks with Forest Whitaker, who provides both an intensity & a warmth that this type of role requires. The whole cast is great.
One more element to note about this film is its musical score. It's not the best or anything (kinda emotionally manipulative ... you're bound to cry at least once, if not several times throughout this tearjerking boxing flick), but it is the recently deceased James Horner's final musical offering. The man is iconic for his work on such classics as Titanic & Braveheart and, this movie is dedicated to his memory {a lovely touch, I think}. So yeah, 'Southpaw' ain't perfect. It offers little in the way of twists or surprises, but it's still relatively engrossing; thanks to the depth of its characters & the performances. And I like that the narrative isn't all "Billy vs. a loathsome opponent" or "Billy vs. a world that hates him", but more of a "Billy vs. himself". And you can forget 'love interest complications' ... Billy's all for his family.