"Southpaw" is fomulaic, but still packs a wallop.

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 2015)

There's a moment every year when I see a film that signals to me that the Oscar race has begun. This is that moment and "Southpaw" (R, 2:03) is the film. Film studios and distributors regularly schedule their most prestigious releases for the last half of the year, so they will be fresher in the minds of members of various awards-sponsoring organizations when it comes time to nominate films for various accolades – and then reward them for excellence early in the new year. Those films that are perceived as the strongest award contenders are often held until the fall, or even the beginning of winter, but the flow of Oscar-bait has to start somewhere. I feel that this film is the first heavy hitter in the ring for 2015.
To garner year-end awards consideration, your film and/or its actors have to be especially good (obviously) – and it helps if your film has a good pedigree. This film is being distributed by the experienced Oscar-campaigning and Oscar-winning The Weinstein Company and was scored by the late multiple Oscar-winner James Horner. Director, Antoine Fuqua helped Denzel Washington to his Best Actor Oscar for "Training Day" (2001). This film's supporting cast includes Forest Whitaker, who won the Best Actor award at SAG, the Golden Globes and the Oscars for "The Last King of Scotland" (2003). The star of "Southpaw" is Jake Gyllenhaal, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) and nominated for a Golden Globe (and many thought should have gotten an Oscar nomination) for Best Actor for his transformative performance in 2014's "Nightcrawler". Well, chalk up another transformative performance for Gyllenhaal, as the title character in "Southpaw", for which he'll almost certainly draw significant attention in the upcoming awards season. And he may not be the only one.
Gyllenhaal gives what may be his most committed and most intense performance to date as Billy Hope, a light heavyweight champion boxer who gets too easily stuck in negative and harmful patterns. In the ring, his style is to allow himself to get savagely beaten in order to awaken the monster inside, a monster which, when unleashed on his opponent, always wins Billy the fight. And his manager (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) is always on hand to cheer him on and ask for more. Billy's beautiful wife (the excellent Rachel McAdams) supports him, but also worries about him and asks him to retire before it's too late for them to enjoy their lives with each other and with their daughter (an impressive Oona Laurence). In spite of his wife's pleadings, Billy's ways of dealing with things eventually cost his family dearly and Billy risks losing everything when his anger leads to increased drinking, drug use and other self-destructive behaviors.
When Billy hits his "rock bottom", the only other person who seems able to help him is former boxer, former trainer and current gym owner and supporter of at-risk youth Titus "Tick" Wills (Forest Whitaker, in possibly his finest performance since his Oscar win, and maybe his best ever). Billy finally sees for himself that if he is going to regain what he's lost, he has to change, and he eventually returns to boxing as a way to do that. As long as the odds are against him rebuilding his life, he comes to believe that he can do it. Even his name implies what eventually comes out of him (Billy Hope as in, William Hope as in, Will Hope). As with all boxing movies, the hard work that's required to be great and stay great (and maybe to become great again) is symbolic of the boxer's struggle to be the best person he can be. If Billy is able to get back into the ring, he will face a hungry young fighter (Miguel Gomez) who will do just about anything to win the title, but Billy's toughest opponent will always be himself.
"Southpaw" is formulaic, but still packs a wallop. Fans of boxing movies (especially the "Rocky" movies) will recognize the basic story structure: A champion boxer fights through all manner of pain and injury to become and remain the champ. His loved ones worry about him. He considers retirement, but an up-and-coming fighter insists on his shot at the title, goading the champ in public and even insulting the champ's wife to get him to agree to a fight. The champ has to convince a reluctant old man to train him, but then resists the trainer's way of doing things. There is a training montage, and then a climactic fight. You've probably seen it before, but never quite like this. The only thing that these performances lack is a weak link, and the film itself is as real, rough and raw as you could ask for. "A-"