Southpaw (Antoine Fuqua)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798684/) / Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southpaw_%28film%29)

http://www.goldposter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Southpaw_poster_goldposter_com _4.jpg

[Henry Gale]

Gyllenhaal's commitment to this and the consistent strengths of his performance really deserve a better movie than this. It's just too by-the-numbers and stylistically seemingly striving for mid-to-late '90s movies that built "You know what, that movie isn't so bad" reputations longtime cable runs, and it leaves nothing juicy or tangible to really hold on to beyond some of those performances. I say some, because where you have Gyllenhaal and McAdams as the best things in it, and you know how much that dynamic exists from the trailers alone, you also have the borderline cartoon characters like 50 Cent and an insanely unconvincing one-off scene with Rita Ora. Whitaker is okay I guess, but again, it'd be easier to tell if his character is any good if it were anything new.

I'm also usually someone that doesn't have a problem being really emotionally involved in any sports movie's versions of shooting said sports, particularly boxing movies, where it's seemingly impossible to lose the power dynamic of a scene that's literally two main characters in a ring together forcibly confronting each other, with all the plot-points they bring with them on the table. But this movie can't even do the boxing scenes without often being distractingly unfocused and disengaging. There are some shots that might have been trying to go for something experimental, but they're just sloppy flourishes that result it mostly being hard to tell what's happening. And then a lot of the big, climactic punches are played sooooooooo overdramatically, with insane amounts of video-game-esque gloss -- slo-mo, contrast increases, glistening sweat/blood, and all -- that I almost wondered if we had entered dream sequences where we'd suddenly snap back to reality to reveal a reality of something much worse for genuine crushing blows.

I get that Fuqua directed Training Day, and that's the thing that's seemingly given him a free pass for everything since (unless he's also the nicest, easiest guy to work with on top of that). But man, his choices aren't even that, they all feel like defaults to what you expect from whatever the genre dictates in its most boring incarnations, or that you even believe are visual and storytelling ideas anyone would reasonably make unironically in 2015. It's not as atrocious on those counts as Olympus Has Fallen (because, this movie has a passable script and some really good actors delivering interesting things), but it reaffirms why when I see a name on a project that all desire to experience it tends to vanish. I really hope he doesn't get Black Panther, but considering how malleable he seemingly is, I wouldn't be surprised.

I also would've really gone in on how bad the score is, in the same vein of that decades-old staleness done with a straight face. Just a lot of cheap, almost laptop-synth-sounding strings, corny piano twinkling motifs re-used in scenes that stick out for not even involving the same characters, general emotions or tonal beats, etc. all set against Eminem-executive produced contemporary selections - BUT, I only realized after the fact that the score was done by James Horner, so I think it's probably be the most unfortunate time to focus on talking trash about one of his final works when his very recent passing has reminded me so much of his genuine talents and my own personal adoration for his earlier works. It's just a shame this has to be among the last we hear from him.

There is a brand new Frank Ocean song at the very end! It sounded nice! And now I don't know how long it'll be 'til I hear the rest! (Eminem's big tie-in track "Phenomenal" is just used as distractingly out-of-place final training montage music. He was originally set to be the lead, so this was the trade-off I guess?)

This was also the Canadian premiere screening, where they had a red carpet and whatnot set up outside, and Gyllenhaal and McAdams came out to walk that and briefly speak before our screening(s) (two at the same time). The movie then immediately started and McAdams walked up the stairs to one of the reserved seats on the aisle, and she seemed eager to just enjoy it with an audience in her hometown, though Gyllenhaal just kind of stopped to whisper a few things in her ear on her way up to explain he wasn't staying, and going by the stunningly shy, humbling way he helped introduce it, it seems like a really everything-on-the-line sort of performance for him to want to feel self-conscious about sitting in an audience with. (And there were scenes that I couldn't tell if the movie wanted to get the laughs it did, but I and most of the audience certainly found nuances of awkward humour in certain interactions, particularly in some of the social worker scenes.) Whereas McAdams, as the ads will all tell you, dies in the first 20/25 minutes, so she could just watch it in a different way after that point. She also just left with everyone else, with maybe one or two security-types to help escort her, with everyone else politely letting her go through first (to an extent, as there were pauses as she quietly, patiently took some pictures -- I say patiently as one was a few takes), which resulted in me being arms-length (or two) from her on the way out of my row.

That part of the experience was sadly more interesting than anything the movie.

So, see it for Gyllenhaal's work, as he continues his recent roll of coming into his own as a reliably compelling performer (and even more importantly, a strong chooser of projects to facilitate that), don't see it for pretty much everything else, since if you're of a certain age, you've seen it before.

** / 4.6 - But even with that I know it'll fade from my memory, maybe even before it gets released in a couple of weeks, with some key moments continuing to resonate due to the lead's acting (particularly in McAdams' last scene).

[Dukefrukem]

Ugh... sports movies.

[Irish]

Go watch some Rocky movies, Duke!

[Dukefrukem]

I know i know I need to. I have them all too.

[Grouchy]

Eh, this was awful, filled with clichés and devoid of any real emotional content despite Gyllenhaal's strong performance.

About the only thing I liked about it was the scene where he asks Forrest Whitaker what's up with his eye.