I'm sorry, but it's honestly laughable that Harvey Weinstein is trying to position this as a major awards contender. It is a fucking mess. It's not unwatchable and fairly entertaining in the moment but upon further analysis it completely comes apart at the seams. Jake Gyllenhaal is good and fully committed to this character, and I bought his emotional beats and intensity, but this isn't one of his best performances and I was far more impressed with him in Nightcrawler last year or even End of Watch a few years ago. It's a very conventional role though and I have to give him credit for putting a lot of effort into it. Rachel McAdams is the other strong point, she's fiery and has great chemistry with Gyllenhaal, which makes it all the more distressing that her role encompasses about 10 minutes of screentime. Forest Whitaker is good considering his character doesn't make any sense. Oona Lawrence does what she can with a one-dimensional daughter role. 50 Cent is laughable. How is this guy still getting offers for lead roles? The movie's biggest flaw is that it is entirely too conventional and also feels undercooked. The final fight is exciting, sure, but the journey there is so rushed that I can't help but feel certain scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Naomie Harris's character is a joke and I can understand why the first choice Lupita N'yongo turned it down. Her appearance near the end felt so forced. The dialogue can also be cringe-inducingly cheesy. There was a bit of unintentional laughter at my screening. This is a "crowd-pleaser," sure, and there are some nice moments and a lovely final musical score from James Horner, but it's so bland and by-the-books that it's hard to see it being remembered. C

In Southpaw, a highly committed and intense lead performance cannot compensate for an uneven, at times even risible screenplay and a general air of the old hat. A boxing drama so archetypal as to be almost primordial, the story turns on Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), a light-heavyweight champion whose career and lavish lifestyle evaporate in the aftermath of a violent tragedy involving his wife, played briefly by Rachel McAdams. Impoverished, separated from his daughter (Oona Laurence), and raging against the world, he focuses anew and trains harder than ever to regain his former status.

Every element in Southpaw is ultra-recognizable. There is the athlete on top of the world who does not respect and control his craft, subsequently falls from grace, and then rises from the ashes, enlightened and enriched. There is the frequent contrasting of the promoter (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), avaricious and flashy, with the hard-nosed, soulful trainer (an excellent Forest Whitaker). There is even an over-the-top antagonist our hero must fight by the end to complete his arc of redemption with a dash of...healing vengeance? Yes, the wheel is never threatened with reinvention here. Yet if the performances connect and the writing has integrity and spirit, old-fashioned ingredients such as these can still result in electrifying cinema (as evidenced recently by The Fighter and Warrior).

Here, the acting is of a high quality—the star's chiseled physique has already awed the media, and his depiction of his character's slow transcendence of inward fury and self-loathing is poignant, if predictable—but the writing is often excruciating. Note the way explanatory information is crudely shoehorned in via commentator voice-over. For instance, the audience is told more than once how Hope hails from a Hell's Kitchen orphanage (surely located on the corner of Rags Avenue and Riches Boulevard), and the serendipitous fact his surname is a synonym for aspirational belief sadly does not go unexploited. In general, Southpaw is plagued by a confusion of purpose, playing as a revenge melodrama trying to be a profound character study; the pulp pleasure of one pursuit is sanded down without achieving the level of authenticity and depth required to satisfy as the other. In the moment, yes, it entertains and holds one's attention (the fights are exciting and well-shot, if a tad too tidily organized into round-by-round montages), and Gyllenhaal is undoubtedly striking, but the stale core, the sense of a film halfheartedly assembled with mercenary clichés, is a constant distraction.

C+

lol at Naomie Harris' character randomly being there for the final fight.

Oh, and the gym member "Hoppy" dying is the most unearned, cynical attempt at a tearjerker moment ever.

"Call me Hoppy."

-five minutes-

"Say, I hear Hoppy is having trouble at home."

-five minutes-

"Hoppy is DEAD! UGH, EXISTENTIAL CRISIS!"

-one minute-

...Hoppy is forgotten...

I HATED both of those scenes. Naomie Harris's character being there at the end made zero sense.

The screenplay for this movie is atrocious.

Also, the Rita Ora cameo is one of the most random and unintentionally hilarious scenes of the year

The Ora scene is such a desperate, "See how gritty our movie is?!" moment.

It is such an absurd moment, particularly in retrospect. This purportedly-world-famous athlete is running around the projects with a gun in search of a rival's henchman. It is the type of vigilante action Antoine Fuqua and Kurt Sutter are highly familiar with between Training Day, The Equalizer, Sons of Anarchy, etc., but it has no place in what is obviously trying to be a Serious Character Study.

Agreed. It was honestly one of the worst parts of the movie and pathetically obvious.

It also strains credulity how he becomes SO POOR in...what, a month? From a Wolf of Wall Street-style lifestyle to a cramped, subsidized one-room apartment.

It seems he had no investments and no endorsement deals. Not even a wealthy friend or two after years as a world-champion boxer. We see his wife negotiating with the promoter poolside, but she must have never done much to solidify and protect the family's wealth.

Granted, it fits into the film's treacly message (he does not deserve it until he earns it again and becomes a more doting father and a more respectable man), but still. This film has no respect for the audience's intelligence.

With an A Cinamascore, 82 user rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.1 rating on IMDB IT looks like people are loving this film.

It's a crowdpleaser so I'm not surprised. But it's SO BAD. It's one of those movies where it may be satisfying while you're watching it but as you peel apart the layers there's literally nothing there. There's zero depth.

The worst part of 50 Cent's godawful performance was the scene where he shows up and tries to get Billy to compete in the final match, and then sneers when he actually does it in the last scene and is like "I only gave him six weeks to train!" He's such a mustache-twirling caricature.

I have heard people apologize for its flaws by saying, "Oh, you know, it is just a boxing movie after all." But clichés can be subverted or even just employed with grace and intelligence (see: Warrior). This film is so halfheartedly constructed. It is a shame Jake Gyllenhaal's intensely focused performance is wasted on it.

That seems like an odd qualification for people to make considering that a boxing movie is commonly regarded as one of the best American films ever made, and several others have won huge acclaim.

As in: fight movies always hit the same beats, so you cannot criticize the film for banality.

'slinger believes he is referring to Raging Bull here, but he is truly referring to Rocky.

Sure, we'll go with that.

I'll admit that the mediocre reviews have dampened my anticipation for this film, but I'm still going to see it if only for Jake Gyllenhaal's performance. I'm wondering when the Academy is going to finally wake up and realize how ridiculously talented he is.

Probably when he delivers a great performance in a typical Hollywood friendly film. Nightcrawler was just never going to cut it with them.

He has an Oscar nomination under his belt, which is more than can be said for other terrific actors of the same generation (roughly), such as Guy Pearce or Tom Hardy.

SOUTHPAW

I thought it was an entertaining film with some nice emotional moments between Jake's character, McAdams and the little girl. I thought McAdams death was especially heartfelt considering her screen time was so limited. I liked the boxing sequences and the story even though it felt like he went from boxing hero to zero in an extremely short amount of time. I did like the climb back up though and the relationship with Whitaker's character. Another surprising moment was the death of Hoppy which took my audience by surprise. The final fight was well done and entertaining. I enjoyed how they built up the suspense because you really didn't know 100% which way it would turn out.

Grade - B

Southpaw is cliched but involving, infused with sufficient grittiness by Antoine Fuqua. The highlight of the film is far and away the increasingly chameleon-like Jake Gyllenhaal, who is surrounded by a solid supporting cast including Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams and young Oona Laurence. It won't change the rulebooks on sports dramas, but you could certainly do worse. B

The McAdams death has to be one of the stupidest scenes I have ever seen in a "serious character study".

It was good, but I also think it could have been so much better. The performances from Gyllenhaal, Whitaker, the little girl, and McAdams are all aces, but everything else felt so cliché/routine as far as Sports Dramas go. Granted, I did get invested in the emotional scenes a few times especially the McAdam's death and the stuff with Gyllenhaal and his daughter was pretty effective in parts, but that's about it. The middle portion really drags and it definitely needed to be trimmed down a bit, but the final fight was entertaining enough and overall I'm glad I finally got to see it, however if I want to watch another great boxing movie again I would honestly rather choose The Fighter over seeing this again.

Southpaw

Wow. This is sensational. It's an emotional rollercoaster, and the performances are absolutely magnetic, making each character just so grounded and real that you feel it. Gyllenhaal commands this film, but the supporting actors are what make it special. Forest Whitaker gives a really honest performance. I really liked it and was surprised by it too. Man, he has improved his craft since his Bloodsport days. Rachel McAdams, even though her screen time is short, was really great. I didn't question the bond between Hope and his wife - it was just natural. Then the daughter. Pretty much all the scenes between Hope and his daughter were really touching and heartfelt. So well acted by both of them. It should have been 2 and a half hours. Fuqua could have filled out the middle section a little more, making the time from losing his house to getting a title fight in Vegas seem longer. But that is literally my only "criticism".

And the fight scenes are just superb. Really hard-hitting and full of movement and grit. Gyllenhaal basically just turned himself into a fighter, at least physically. A fantastic transformation. I was sucked in at the opening fight. So real and intense, and then the film didn't let me go until the end credits.

Southpaw should be nominated for some Academy Awards, but it won't be. I guess I just love boxing movies. Not all of them are great, but Southpaw is, and it has now set the bar very high for other 2015 boxing movies like Creed. Fuqua knows what boxing movie conventions to keep and which ones to cut, and the ones he keeps he ramps up to eleven. Oh, such a great film. Probably the best film of 2015 so far. Loved it.

A