A champion boxer fights to get his daughter back from child protective services as well as revive his professional career, after a fatal incident sends him on a rampant path of destruction.
When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
The story of New Zealand's Robert "Rob" Edwin Hall, who on May 10, 1996, together with Scott Fischer, teamed up on a joint expedition to ascend Mount Everest.
Director:
Baltasar Kormákur
Stars:
Jason Clarke,
Ang Phula Sherpa,
Thomas M. Wright
A successful investment banker struggles after losing his wife in a tragic car crash. With the help of a customer service rep and her young son, he starts to rebuild, beginning with the demolition of the life he once knew.
Shot documentary-style, this film follows the daily grind of two young police officers in LA who are partners and friends, and what happens when they meet criminal forces greater than themselves.
Director:
David Ayer
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Michael Peña,
Anna Kendrick
A soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train. A mission he has only 8 minutes to complete.
Director:
Duncan Jones
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Michelle Monaghan,
Vera Farmiga
When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.
In the late 1960s/early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
Director:
David Fincher
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Robert Downey Jr.,
Mark Ruffalo
Stronger is the inspiring real life story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become a symbol of hope after surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Director:
David Gordon Green
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Tatiana Maslany,
Miranda Richardson
A psychological study of operations desert shield and desert storm during the gulf war; through the eyes of a U.S marine sniper who struggles to cope with the possibility his girlfriend may be cheating on him back home.
As tragedy strikes him in his prime, famed boxer, Billy Hope, begins to fall into a great depression. Once the decision regarding the custody of his daughter is under question, Billy decides to get his life back on track by getting back into the ring.
In some of the fight scenes, the ringside cameramen are seen shooting with an Arri Alexa camera. This camera would probably never be used to cover sports events. It was the actual film crew that you see in the shot. See more »
Jake Gyllenhaal gives his fans his best work since Brokeback Mountain as light heavyweight champion Billy Hope who suffers a horrific personal tragedy beyond any I've ever seen in a boxing film and comes back from it. For what he goes through Sylvester Stallone had it easy. As Brokeback Mountain got him an Oscar nomination maybe Southpaw will do the same.
Billy Hope is a kid raised in an orphanage as a foundling as is his loving and supportive wife Rachel McAdams. They have a daughter played by Oona Laurence who is their whole world. When McAdams is killed in an unspeakable tragedy, Gyllenhaal's world falls apart and he has to make one long comeback.
As a kid who was raised by the social welfare system it's the system that decides what he must do to gain back his child. Gyllenhaal is wonderful as a man who successfully conquers the badder angels of his nature to gain it all back, title, child, and self respect.
McAdams should be singled out for a moving death scene ranking up there with some of the screen's best. Also Forest Whitaker who trains the ex-champ for his comeback should also be singled out.
Watching Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope put me in mind of heavyweight contender Hurricane Jackson when I was a kid. There's no science in Hope's style, he just wades in and brawls. Hope will take two or three punches to get in his shot. As McAdams points out he'll be punch drunk within a few years. Whitaker puts a little science in his boxing persona. Hurricane Jackson was very much like Billy Hope and did in fact end up punch drunk.
This is a fine boxing film and Oscar nominations could come for Gyllenhaal and McAdams.
16 of 23 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Jake Gyllenhaal gives his fans his best work since Brokeback Mountain as light heavyweight champion Billy Hope who suffers a horrific personal tragedy beyond any I've ever seen in a boxing film and comes back from it. For what he goes through Sylvester Stallone had it easy. As Brokeback Mountain got him an Oscar nomination maybe Southpaw will do the same.
Billy Hope is a kid raised in an orphanage as a foundling as is his loving and supportive wife Rachel McAdams. They have a daughter played by Oona Laurence who is their whole world. When McAdams is killed in an unspeakable tragedy, Gyllenhaal's world falls apart and he has to make one long comeback.
As a kid who was raised by the social welfare system it's the system that decides what he must do to gain back his child. Gyllenhaal is wonderful as a man who successfully conquers the badder angels of his nature to gain it all back, title, child, and self respect.
McAdams should be singled out for a moving death scene ranking up there with some of the screen's best. Also Forest Whitaker who trains the ex-champ for his comeback should also be singled out.
Watching Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope put me in mind of heavyweight contender Hurricane Jackson when I was a kid. There's no science in Hope's style, he just wades in and brawls. Hope will take two or three punches to get in his shot. As McAdams points out he'll be punch drunk within a few years. Whitaker puts a little science in his boxing persona. Hurricane Jackson was very much like Billy Hope and did in fact end up punch drunk.
This is a fine boxing film and Oscar nominations could come for Gyllenhaal and McAdams.