The first trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s boxing movie Southpaw—the one he got insanely ripped for—just premiered on Eminem’s Youtube channel, of all the weird places. Once upon a time, Eminem was attached to the project, but his involvement now is limited to a song on the soundtrack and, apparently, debuting the trailer. Which is INTENSE. Holy sh*t does this movie look nervy. Following his movie star disappointment Jake G has remade himself into one of the most interesting and compelling actors of his generation, and even just these two minutes of the trailer makes Southpaw look like another grand-slam performance.
Jake G stars as Billy Hope, a champion boxer who loses everything after his wife (Rachel McAdams) dies. He has to start over, so he hooks up with a new coach, played by Forest Whitaker, and tries to reclaim his title. Ostensibly it’s a boxing movie but it looks like the drama is more family-centric, revolving around Hope’s efforts to reconnect with and reclaim his daughter after she’s taken from his custody. I suspect people will show up for the boxing and get sucker-punched by the emotional weight of this movie—Jake G is not currently in the business of crowd-pleasing. Southpaw has a July release date but it’s being released by The Weinstein Company, so I’m sure an Oscar push will follow. Losing a bunch of weight didn’t do anything for him last award season, so maybe gaining a bunch of weight will get it done this time around.
(Lainey: OMG I love how he changed his talking voice. Again. Note too that the film was written by Kurt Sutter, of Sons Of Anarchy. Who created Jax Teller. Who might be an expert at writing violent damaged men who become sex symbols.)
