Southpaw: Antoine Fuqua’s film skips any hints of subtlety; the story itself is a collection of the clichés used in the genre, to the point of being overly busy. By the other hand, the boxing scenes, the way they were put together, are uninteresting and unexciting. Mauro Fiore’s restless camera and John Refoua’s excessive editing end up being a liability. At the other end of the spectrum is Jake Gyllenhaal’s strong performance; the physical transformation is striking, but so is both his ferocity and his vulnerability at times. The rest of the cast is uneven, but part of the blame belongs to the writing.