| On its surface, The Fire Inside appears to be like most other sports biographies – underdog athlete overcomes adversity to win a championship. But there’s a moment, and it comes very suddenly, where boxer Claressa Shields achieves her dreams and then you realize we’re only half-way into the movie. Director Rachel Morrison and writer Barry Jenkins realized something important – sometimes the more interesting moments come after the big victory. | | 2024
Directed by: Rachel Morrison
Screenplay by: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry
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If it’s about the person as much as it’s about the sport, then where they go after is as crucial as how they got there. If you’re like me, and millions and millions of other people, then you might know the name Claressa Shields but not know anything about her. This review will toe the line of spoilers; unfortunately the nature of the movie makes it such that all of the elements that make it as good as it is come in the second half of the movie, after some significant moments have already occurred.
At a child, Claressa was just hanging around the boxing gym in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. The coach, Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), eventually starts including her in the lessons, but comes home to his wife with an important question, “Can girls box?” Of course they can, is the basic response. Jason isn’t intending to be misogynistic, but he’s just never had a girl in his gym before, especially not one as young as Claressa.
Jason knows who her family is and a boxing ring is a better place for her than home with a drug addicted mother, her mother’s abusive boyfriends and a father in prison. While much of her story does fit the downtrodden underdog story, the filmmakers never focus on any one aspect too long. Its clear what her family life is like and we, nor Jason, dwell on it.
Rachel Morrison, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer, is making her feature film directorial debut with The Fire Inside. Her cinematography background is clear as there are so many perfectly photographed shots of Flint, Michigan – the empty streets, the empty stores, the snow falling in front of street lights as Claressa relentlessly trains. She has one goal in mind: make it to the Olympics and win a gold medal, making her the first woman in US history to do so. (As an aside: Rachel Morrison was the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography, this feels like a very fitting story for her to tell).
The defining moment of the movie comes when Claressa comes back home from the Olympics and asks the question, “Now what?” Now what, indeed. The contrast between the rich spectacle of the Olympics with over 750 million people watching worldwide, and then coming home to the crumbling town of Flint is mesmerizing. She may be a local celebrity, but nobody else cares.
Olympic athlete is not a profession, especially not for Black women in men-dominated sports. The second half of the movie goes far beyond the underdog winning a championship, and examines the struggle in returning to regular life, especially for a teenage phenom – Ryan Destiny absolutely shines in these moments trying to reconcile Claressa the boxer with Claressa a teenage girl on her way to prom. Fitting in with those themes, includes the attempts to find Claressa an endorsement deal, and how to force the U.S. boxing governing bodies to give her a fair chance.
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