May this serve as a reminder that no matter what you may be experiencing, there is freedom and rest on the other side. So do not fear you are worth more than many sparrows,” Matthew 10:31. Isn’t that cool? How God uses His creation to paint pictures of redemption and healing, of joy and hope, and of freedom and peace. I love birds and their reminder that freedom and rest aren’t far away.  With a movie that relies heavily on its cliched genre, Southpaw suffers more from its darkness rather than its redemption into the light for our character Hope.Some poetry for this beautiful, sunny Monday. The ending knockout might have even been computer generated if I caught it right. The fight scenes are brutal, but actually feel more like a video game with so many punches landing rather than an exposition for an actual boxing match. I don't think I have liked anything he's done since his time on The Shield almost ten years ago. The juxtaposition of the excitement of the game with Henry’s growing awareness of what goes on in hotels and trains turns The Southpaw into a triumph of comic realism. At least here, we get the former rather than the latter like in Taken 3, which means he at least put effort into the character. The biggest issue I continue to have in THIS guy's movies, and this guy being Forest Whitaker, is his choice to either over act or mail it in. The daughter I suppose was played well enough by Clare Foley, but it was more of a fake cry on cue kind of performance. Most of her (and Hope's) backstory comes from exposition after the fact.  It was almost impersonal without getting her on screen for more than 20 minutes. Hope's revenge on his character doesn't feel grounded other than the fact he said a few words to ignite those flames of passion to give us an angry man before and after Rachel McAdam's character's death.  I don't think I've ever seen someone act like such a smart guy one minute and completely flip to idiocy the next. I was really at a loss with the 'villain' of the film played by Victor Ortiz. While Jake Gyllenhaal commands the screen as Billy Hope's 'came up through the system' champion with a committed performance both in physicality and emotion, most of the time, 'Southpaw' beats you so far into the mat with misery it's tough to enjoy. The tale of redemption is one as old as time when it comes to seeing someone get beat down and get back up only to find the success they lost found once again. Rating: R (Some Violence|Language Throughout)īoxing movies can be tough to bring out on the screen from the paper they are written on. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker), a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. Billy 'The Great' Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle.

Southpaw by Tabby R.H.

How do you navigate a character’s voice or personal story without imposing too much of your own? I love examining that in the Cross River saga. The daily mission I was given when hired is an extension of the mission of the people who founded the school. I teach at an HBCU founded 151 years ago to educate freed slaves. So much of the way we do things, both on a micro and a macro level, is defined by decisions made hundreds of years before we were born. Given the history of Cross River and how the town is utilized as the setting of present-day events in Insurrections, how important is its history in framing the present and future lives of its residents/characters? So many of my stories are “what ifs.” What if that birthday party I threw for my son went horribly? What if that mistaken identity encounter turned into a disaster? Adding a successful slave revolt in the background of my work adds a giant “what if” to play with over my entire project.Īlso, as a young man studying history I always dreamt and wondered what things would have been like had John Brown, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, etc, been successful. I wanted to have a location to call my own, the same way Sherwood Anderson had his Winesburg, Ohio. Why was that characteristic important in the literary construction of this town? It is known as the home of America’s only successful slave revolt. Most importantly, I hope readers have fun with my book.Ĭross River, MD is the fictional town you created for Insurrections. I hope readers interrogate what constitutes masculinity. I hope readers see different perspectives on blackness or, ways of doing blackness. Readers always show me new things about my book that I never noticed. What do you hope readers will grasp with this collection? Your debut collection of short stories, Insurrections, was published in August 2016. No matter what I’m doing, I’m working on my stories somewhere in my head. I’m constantly daydreaming about my stories and whatever is going on with my imaginary friends. When I discovered poetry as a pre-teen I was pretty much in love. At what point in your life did you decide you wanted to pursue a career as a writer?

Goodnight moon by margaret brown