Southpaw

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)

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)

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 narrative structure is a bit inconsistent, as after a strangely rushed and overstuffed first half, the story basically "starts from scratch". Anyway, with the arrival of Forest Whitaker on the scene, Southpaw spills into its better half. It's not necessarily his acting (he's playing his standard), rather that he has an extremely audience-rewarding "mentor" role here. Perhaps the only thing worth mentioning from the first half of the film is the opening fight, which is beautifully and evocatively shot. Everything else in the first hour felt too superficial and overwrought. The second half is a lot more believable and elevates the final impression to slightly above average. (24/03/2019)

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… ;) (16/09/2015)