20 Best Blu-rays Of 2015

16. Southpaw

The pedigree involved with Southpaw make for a good one-two punch (pun absolutely intended), as director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and screenwriter Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) team for what is a fairly cliche riches-to-rags-and-back-again boxing tale, albeit one sufficiently bolstered by Jake Gyllenhaal's intense absorption into his role as live-wire fighter/loving family man Billy 'The Great' Hope. Antoine Fuqua did his best to pave over the script's shortcomings, with the standard third act 'big fight' being deftly filmed and edited.

The special features for Southpaw really highlight the biggest achievement of the film; namely, Jake Gyllenhaal's immersion into his role as Hope and subsequent absolute transformation into walking, talking Shredded Wheat. There's a 25-minute Making Of which illuminates the realism inherent in the film (with real-life professional boxers attesting to said realism), as well as Jake's aforementioned moulding into a cheese grater/professional boxer. Some deleted scenes add some more meat to the film's fairly frail frame, and an extended training featurette shows exactly how pumped the director got, as well as Jake. Props to him.

Southpaw is included on this list because it actually subverts the idea that special features have to be comprised of wafer-thin bonus content featuring a bunch of bored-looking actors attempting to sound enthusiastic about a film they did solely for the paycheck. Say what you want about Southpaw as a film, but the passion and belief in the project from those responsible for its creation is palpable thanks to these not-inconsiderable special features. Keep an eye out for a thoroughly interesting Q&A with the entire cast following an early screening of the flick.