Jake Gyllenhaal really fought in boxing movie

What Southpaw lacks in originality and complexity, it makes up for in craftsmanship and ferociousness.

Structurally, there’s a battle going on in Southpaw between the familiar sports drama it seems to be working against, and its unique character arc.

Enter Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker), a gruff ex-fighter and current trainer of New York’s scrappiest and neediest amateur boxers.

“He had already ran eight miles that morning and was already in the gym, and so in rehearsal you feel like you have to bring it…It’s only fair”.

Gyllenhaal could hardly be blamed. I wish these performances were in a better movie. “But when Jake was first starting to box, and I went and met him at the gym, he had a big bushy beard and a ponytail”. Maybe there’s a girlfriend – or a mother, or some other family member – to fret over whether the focus on making it to the top is distracting him from important things like his health.

Yet the possibility lingered.

Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation is impressive.

Gyllenhaal was prepared for the challenge. He reportedly regained the 30 pounds he shed for another drama,”Nightcrawler”, and packed on another 15. “He’s tough, ‘” recalls Fuqua. He’s Billy Hope, the light heavyweight champ, a man of action, not a thinker, whose feelings go deep, but whose anger is close to the surface. Literally. Terry stated, “Gyllenhaal didn’t have any days off, training seven days a week for six months”. There has been a bit of Oscar buzz for Gyllenhaal’s performance and I wouldn’t disagree with those pundits, but how the public respond to the flick will have an impact in my opinion. He and cinematographer Mauro Fiore even enlisted HBO Boxing veterans Todd Palladino and Rick Cypher to shoot the fights. The fights look like fights we’ve already seen in the movies, with slightly jazzed, sped-up action and quick cutting that is more expedient than inspired. “So really extraordinary. Very awe-inspiring”.

Gyllenhaal was devoted to getting it right. As I got more fluent, my body transformed.

Many of those real hits made the final cut. The latest boxing flick to hit theaters, “Southpaw” takes a formula that has been used before to introduce audiences to the character of Billy Hope.

The G-Unit boss says that he enjoyed working with Gyllenhaal.

McAdams also gave boxing a try, admitting that she now owns a pair of pink gloves that she used in preparation for TV series True Detective.

Cotto even provided the unlikely inspiration for a small, but powerful detail in “Southpaw”. And then, down and out, battered and grieving, he must somehow climb out of his slough of despond toward redemption. He delivers tender scenes with his wife and daughter, a stark contrast from the trash-talking monster when he’s in the ring. But he makes us feel the nearly feral elements of Billy’s understanding of the world around him, and he shows us the way his growing understanding of himself as he has to take responsibility for his choices is reflected in the ring.

“To me, that’s what the craft of acting is”.