Southpaw

It was nice to finally watch a movie that felt like a real “movie” to me!  Jake Gyllenhaal plays a champion boxer that is on top of the world and then out of nowhere, has a tragedy suddenly tear his life apart.  After losing everything important to him, he must find a way to deal with it all and make his way out of the depths to which his life has sunken.  It reminded me of the Rocky movies with him having to overcome some obstacle to get back on top, but felt more realistic with the real-life things he had to get past and work through.  There was a lot more blood, language, and violence than those movies, too, but that seemed to make it a stronger movie rather than take away from it.  I guess I would call the movie this generation’s Rocky.  It was definitely worth watching!