6) Southpaw (opens July 24, wide)
Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t looking so good the last time we saw him (in Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler), and now, he’s transformed again, albeit in the opposite direction, for Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama Southpaw, bulking up so completely that he’s almost unrecognizable. It makes us wonder why more people aren’t raving about how excited they are to see the pic, as opposed to summer fluff like the new Mission: Impossible and Pixels?
Regardless, Southpaw should be on every dutiful cinephile’s list – Gyllenhaal stars as a tormented boxer grieving the death of his wife (Rachel McAdams). When his self-destructive behavior causes child protection services to take his child, he struggles to get his life back on track with the help of an accomplished trainer (Forest Whitaker). It sounds like one of the few movies of the summer that we could be talking about during awards season.