Southpaw

My Grade:  A

Jake Gyllenhaal is quickly becoming, well, has become one of my favorite actors currently working. This happened ever since he elevated David Ayer’s End of Watch from what could have been a run-of-the-mill cop flick to something visceral and engrossing. He picks solid movies with meaty roles in which he can really show off his acting chops. They are also wildly varied roles as of late.

On its surface, Southpaw looks like a standard sports drama with an equally standard revenge plot woven in. At its heart, though, it’s the story of a broken man who loses everything which allows him to discover what really matters:  family. The only family he has left after his violent temper leads to his wife’s untimely slaying is his daughter, Leila (a revelatory turn from Oona Laurence), whom he also loses when a court determines he is not fit to be her guardian because of his temper and substance abuse. Not to mention, he loses his mansion when he gets sued for attacking a boxing referee, so he is essentially homeless. The majority of the rest of the runtime is spent outside of the ring as Billy fights his own personal demons to get his daughter back.

It really is a shame that the trailers ruined the moment in which Billy loses his wife. Even though you know it’s coming, it still lands like an emotional sucker punch thanks to Gylenhaal’s performance. But, it could have been a much more powerful moment if we didn’t see it coming. If your eyes don’t well up at that moment, there are plenty of other moments for you to fight back tears. Most of which are courtesy of Billy and Leila as both of them try to work out their new relationship in the absence of their wife/mother. These are the best scenes in the film and are truly a testament to the writing and the performances from Gyllenhaal and Laurence.

Adding to the emotional weight is the blind-in-one-eye trainer, Tick Wills (yet another great performance from the always good Forest Whitaker). He used to be a boxer himself but now runs a gym for at risk youth and serves as a father figure to most of them. He also has his own demons to spar with. That just goes to show how rich every character is in this film. “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter has penned a script that goes far beyond just fleshing out a few main characters to make Southpaw stand out from the herd of sports dramas and revenge pictures. Couple that with Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day, The Equalizer) character focused story-telling and you can’t help but be drawn in whether you’re a boxing fan or not. Even Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson gets to do some acting and succeeds in gradually peeling away the layers of his greedy agent, Jordan Mains.


Overall, Southpaw tells an engrossing story about a father’s struggle to be there for his daughter. All the welterweight championship belts, mansions, gold watches, and fame don’t define you as a man. Being the father you need to be and being able to look at yourself in the mirror are the real victories.