The Fire Inside (dir. Rachel Morrison)

by Jack Martin | Feb 4, 2025

Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 109 mins

UK Distributor: Curzon

UK Release Date: 7 February 2025

WHO’S IN THE FIRE INSIDE?

Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry, Oluniké Adeliyi, De’Adre Aziza, Idrissa Sanogo Bamba, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Sekhai Smith, Adam Clark, Sarah Allen, Jazmin Headley

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Rachel Morrison (director), Barry Jenkins (writer, producer), Michael De Luca and Elishia Holmes (producers), Tamar-kali (composer), Rina Yang (cinematographer), Harry Yoon (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In 2012, 16-year-old boxer Claressa Shields (Destiny) makes Olympic history…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE FIRE INSIDE?

Talking about the familiar tropes of a sports movie in a review is almost as predictable as most actual sports movies, because by this point every single beat of the formula – from the energised montages to the inspiring coach/trainer to the triumphant climax – has been done so often that it’s practically pointless to use them as legitimate criticism anymore. All that we can do now is determine whether or not the conventions are executed well enough, or even if they’re used in unexpected ways that flip the entire formula on its head.

The Fire Inside, the directorial debut of cinematographer Rachel Morrison, not only has the execution down to a tee, but does something rather profound that few other movies of its like actually tend to highlight. In doing so, it becomes more than just a mere sports movie, instead going far beyond its limits to address certain imbalances within the sporting industry that are genuinely concerning, yet rarely talked about. And it does it all with a firm, steadfast approach that gives it the energy needed to see itself through.

It is the story of Claressa Shields (portrayed here by Ryan Destiny), the sixteen-year-old amateur boxer from Flint, Michigan who, in 2012, achieves her dream by qualifying for, and eventually winning big at, the London Olympics. The film follows Shields on her prosperous path, beginning in 2006 when a young Claressa (Jazmin Headley), who comes from an impoverished household with a careless mother (Oluniké Adeliyi) and an incarcerated father (Adam Clark), confidently struts into the local community gym to train. There, she catches the attention of volunteer boxing coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) who, despite only training boys, decides to coach Claressa until she’s ready to qualify for the Olympics.

This first half is, as you might have gathered, where the sports movie tropes play out in full force. It packs everything you could expect from this kind of movie, with training montages and inspirational speeches aplenty, into a compact and easily digestible piece of narrative. For much of it, you’re mostly just watching all these regular tropes unfold, which are handled well by director Morrison, as are some of the more impactful emotional scenes involving certain members of Shields’s family who often treat her and her similarly struggling siblings poorly (I was initially picking up some tastes of Moonlight during those moments, until I realised that Barry Jenkins actually wrote the script for this film, in addition to producing it). However, while you’re never disliking it by any means, it is nonetheless a bit of a struggle to differentiate it from all the other sports films out there, which can initially make it seem like nothing that special.

However, by the time it finally reaches the Olympics, a sequence that unfolds like the climax of any given Rocky or Creed movie, you realise that it’s only an hour in. With at least a good half-hour of film remaining, it starts to dawn on you that there’s more to be said about this person and their journey to the big time, all of which unfolds during a much more intimate second half. It is at this point when The Fire Inside transitions from being a merely good sports movie to being a quietly powerful, and at times infuriating, look at how success isn’t always the happy ending we hope it is.

During this section, Jenkins’s script hits a number of all too realistic points about the fact that Claressa Shields, despite achieving incredible things on the world stage, was effectively cast aside for a number of reasons, from her working-class background to the fact that marketing female boxers to general audiences is pretty much a non-starter, even in the early 2010s. It also shows characters, particularly those who initially seemed like they had it all figured out, getting in way over their heads as their futile attempts to reach out to big-name sponsors lead to even harder economic hits. You can feel the frustration within both Claressa, not least of all because Ryan Destiny’s central performance is fiercely captivating, and especially her coach Jacob, fantastically played by Brian Tyree Henry, since he is the one who ends up having more to lose in his increasingly fruitless endeavours to get his star boxer the recognition and compensation she is rightfully owed.

It presents a sobering side to this type of sports movie, specifically ones based on actual athletes, that is often glossed over in favour of more audience-friendly storytelling. Here, you really empathize with Claressa’s struggle to gain recognition beyond her Olympics success, because Morrison and Jenkins handle her situation with dignity and respect, only occasionally fumbling some vital details (a harrowing reveal concerning some childhood trauma with a former parental figure is reduced to a single rushed monologue that never comes back into play). Most of all, the filmmakers remember to give this figure and the supporting characters plenty of humanity that have you understanding, though not necessarily agreeing with, a lot of their actions, which is the basis of any good drama out there.

In a lot of respects, especially during its first half, The Fire Inside is the kind of sports movie you have seen time and time again. But once it hits that certain point, it transforms into something that few of the many other movies of this genre actually end up being: a film that works and has something to say beyond the conventional tropes.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Fire Inside begins as a fairly generic yet well-executed sports movie, before then transforming into a quietly devastating human drama that sheds light on an all-too realistic side of success, which along with some excellent performances and its graceful humanity elevates the rest of the movie substantially.