By Bob Bloom “Southpaw” is a solid and violent boxing feature that leans more toward middleweight status than the heavyweight class of such classics as “Raging Bull” or “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” The movie chronicles a beefed-up Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope, a champion at the pinnacle of success, who, after a tragedy, loses everything and must conquer his rage and doubts to overcome despair and redeem himself. The fall-from-grace storyline is a familiar angle in boxing films: Sylvester Stallone used it in his “Rocky” franchise and it has been a staple of the genre as far back as the 1930s when Warner Bros. and other studios were churning out such films as “The Champ,” “The Life of Jimmy Dolan” and “They Made Me a Criminal.”
ReelBob: 'Southpaw’
ReelBob: 'Southpaw’
ReelBob: 'Southpaw’
By Bob Bloom “Southpaw” is a solid and violent boxing feature that leans more toward middleweight status than the heavyweight class of such classics as “Raging Bull” or “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” The movie chronicles a beefed-up Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope, a champion at the pinnacle of success, who, after a tragedy, loses everything and must conquer his rage and doubts to overcome despair and redeem himself. The fall-from-grace storyline is a familiar angle in boxing films: Sylvester Stallone used it in his “Rocky” franchise and it has been a staple of the genre as far back as the 1930s when Warner Bros. and other studios were churning out such films as “The Champ,” “The Life of Jimmy Dolan” and “They Made Me a Criminal.”