“Southpaw” For years directors have been making sports movies that audiences love. Movies like the Gavin O’Conner film “Miracle”, based on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, and the Richard Linklater comedy “Bad News Bears” have stood the test of time and remain fan favorite movies. However, “Southpaw”, which premiered in 2015, is the next generation of sports films. The movie follows lightweight boxer Billy Hope as he struggles with the fame, fortune, and tragedy that come with being the reigning champion. Hope loses everything and must navigate a tough road before he can return to the ring. Unfortunately, critics didn’t agree on this film; some gave it great reviews, and some gave it terrible reviews.
One aspect of the film that the reviewers found to be positive was the plot. Scott states that “Kurt Sutter, torques this baby until it screams” (Scott par 4). This shows that the plot is filled with tiny twists and turns that ultimately make the movie a nail biter. The critic goes on to say “the plotting is somehow both flat footed and operatic in its absurdity”
…show more content…
Movie critic A.O. Scott summed up the movie saying, “I wish I could say ‘Southpaw’ was a knockout, or even a contender, that it went the distance or scored points, but it’s strictly an undercard bout” (Sott par 8). However, Peter Suderman says “‘Southpaw is no knockout, but thanks to the calming presence of Mr. Whitaker - along with some increasingly surefooted direction by Antoine Fuqua - it still comes out a winner” (Suderman par 13). Just like the movie’s main character, Billy Hope, “Southpaw” has seen both the good and bad. Some fans have seen the movie multiple times and can recite lines word for word while others could barely make it through their first viewing. “Southpaw” is no “Miracle” or “Bad News Bears”, but it might be this generation’s “Rocky
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
In the movie Krush Groove there were several different hip-hop artists. The movie was focused around Russell Simmons and Run-DMC. The movie showed the struggle of early hip-hop artist trying to make it. The movie showed how Def Jam was started and all the different artist and individuals who helped get Def Jam where it is today. When the movie started it showed Run DMC performing “King of Rock” in the studio. This set the tone by showing you who these individuals are and what they are setting out to do. Jam Master Jay was also in this movie and he mixed the records for Run DMC. Kurtis Blow was another artist that was in the movie. Kurtis Blow performed several times in the movie. The one that stood out to me was when he performed “If I Ruled
By adapting the standard Hollywood ‘road’ movie narrative (east to west), incorporating modern music as non-diegetic sound and utilizing shocking scenes – both socially and in terms of ignoring every written and unwritten filming law - Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider stands as a testament to the changes going on in the US during the late 1960s and creates a certain distance to the previous way of seeing America.
Incohesive, long, and dialogue-heavy, Inherent Vice has all the potential to flounder. Yet under the steady (or rather, wild) hands of director Paul Thomas Anderson, the film becomes a psychedelic, incredibly enjoyable ride brimming with wit and melancholy. The film follows Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello (played in routinely magnificent fashion by the now ever-reliable Joaquin Phoenix), and his exploits to help his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fey (Katherine Waterston, also exquisite) investigate a kidnapping of notorious real-estate billionaire Mickey Wolfmann. From there, the plot descends (or ascends, depending on your perspective of the film) into sumptuous lunacy; a mystery involving the coveted and secretive
It was incredibly difficult to not to pick one of my favorite films for this project, such as A Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and Jaws. However, I went out of my comfort zone and picked a genre of film I’ve never become familiar with- Western. The 1974 film Blazing Saddles was a hilarious frontier/Wild West twist about road worker named Bart, played by Cleavon Little, becoming part of character Hedley Lamarr’s (Harvey Korman) evil plan to out-run the small town of Rock Ridge by appointing an African American sheriff to the massly single-minded small town of racist’s. With the plan to destroy the town to make way for a new railroad, Lamarr is convinced that they town would be so appalled that they wouldn’t stand having an
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and
My thoughts on the movie Hacksaw Ridge would be well judged and fair criticism because it was a timeline of a marvelous boy's life that one moment would tell the future of his whole life. The movie started when a boy named Dalton had seen this beautiful nurse and he was just staring at her for the longest time. Then he finally had the courage to walk over the and he was five feet from here just staring and the nurse said can I help u and he said: “ I need my belt “. In that moment in the movie, he knew that he had found that one girl that he was going to spend the rest of his life with. In life, it's hard to find that one and Dalton found her at a young age.To also be fine with her husband going to war where he could die and he was fine with
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” When Andy Dufresne said this he showed us that hope is a powerful emotion and there is always going to be hope no matter the situation you are in. Some would call the The Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont, the cream of the crop as it is a brilliantly thought out and presented film that uses acting and an intelligently directed plot to entice the viewer. The film features Tim Robbins, as Andy Dufresne, and Morgan Freeman as Red. Freeman’s silky smooth narrating makes the film all the more better. Shawshank is deeper than most films; about continuity in a lifetime, based on friendship and hope. Shawshank Redemption is a slow
Spike Lee’s first student production, The Answer, was a short ten minute film which told of a young black screenwriter who rewrote D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. The film was not well accepted among the faculty at New York University, stating Lee had not yet mastered “film grammar.” Lee went on to believe the faculty took offense to his criticisms towards the respected director’s stereotypical portrayals of black characters (1). For his final film project, Lee wrote, produced, and directed Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The film won him the 1983 Student Academy Award for Best Director and the Lincoln Center chose the film as its first student production. The film was lo...
I have never heard of the movie Ushpizin before. So when I saw this film in the list, I decided to give it a try. And I absolutely haven’t regretted choosing it, since it turned out to be one of the most inspirational movies I’ve seen recently.
...ught it was crude, tasteless, and offensive. He believes that absolute good and absolute evil have no place in South Park and that dumbing down is constantly rewarded and everything is relative. He addresses the point that the South park creators make it ironic that the target of violence in the movie is Canadians which is not funny at all. Whitney comments saying that “Canada is one of the handfuls of countries that have made a concerted effort to block the excesses of American culture by discouraging the distribution of American books, films, and music in the country.” Whitney is a publisher for a Christianity based publication. He has a serious tone throughout the article and he seems emotional about this subject. I will use this in my paper to show the opposition of what I will be arguing and to show that some audience’s do not agree with the South Park purpose.
The film West Side takes place in New York City where a Polish- American gang, referred to as the Jets, competes against a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, to own the neighborhood streets. The central theme of this film is passionate love that defies friendships, family and other factors. To add to that, the dominating genre of the film is a musical involving drama and romance.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
The movie Southpaw is about a talented boxer named Billy Hope who has a wonderful family, a lot of money, and a lot of fame. Billy is the undefeated champ and is doing everything he can to keep that title. Kurt Sutter, the writer for the movie Southpaw conveys to the audience that you can do something to make a difference so you should never give up on your dreams and that family is everything.
...n (Director) mistakenly seems to believe can carry the whole film. On the strength "based on a true story", he has rejected attention-grabbing characters, an imaginative plot, and unforgettable villains.