Southpaw

Southpaw = the Rocky of the new generation! I didn't have very high expectations, but the film swept me up in its plot from beginning to end and had me emotionally wrung out like nothing I've seen in a long time. Story-wise, the film doesn't bring anything groundbreaking to the genre, but the Oscar-worthy performances, the fierce emotional power, the decent pacing, perfect training montage to Eminem's music, and the thrilling final fight make for an honest-to-goodness heartbreaker at the very least. I cheered, I cried, I screamed like I haven't in a long time. Liked it more than Warrior. 85%. (06/09/2015)

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%) (29/10/2022)

It’s a more expensive and bloated Million Dollar Baby with the opposite sex in the lead role, and the injury, instead of physical, is psychological. Fuqua fits into the mainstream much more than Eastwood, so where Clint meticulously crafted scenes with slow piano, dull sounds of punches, and masterful camera capturing the gray gym, Fuqua goes for it with loud hip-hop and jerky editing. Maybe it might sound like a criticism, but it isn't. Fuqua has worked hard recently, found a good dramaturge, and although he still has a boring and ordinary screenwriter, both Equalizer and Southpaw naturally generate emotions in the viewer. And so I can confidently say that Southpaw is the director's most mature and complete film in every aspect since Training Day, and I can easily add a second parallel: a similarly expressive main character who carries the whole film on his shoulders as in the Oscar-winning hit, but this time it’s the trainer vs. apprentice. Forest Whitaker is undoubtedly the best character of the film, but Jake Gyllenhaal could win prestigious awards with his explicit acting and physically demanding role. Surprisingly, Southpaw is authentic, sincere, and raw enough through all its clichés, predictability, and simple narrative storytelling of dreams, falls, rises, and finding the right values, to entertain not only a simple consumer but also someone who wants a bit more from a film, is willing to overlook the classic drawbacks of big productions and get drawn into it. (24/07/2015)

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. (10/09/2015)

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. (15/09/2015)