The story of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan who trained to become the first woman in her country’s history to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport.
This was one of my favorite movies of this awards season.
Look, I know I’m a sucker for a sports movie. The traditional ones— not the ones that like to manipulate your emotions like Million Dollar Baby. I’m talking about the ones that follow the traditional format:
- We meet our hero.
- This could be a team or an individual
- We learn the obstacles they have to overcome
- We watch them compete
- There is often a montage here
- They lose
- Then they win.
- Alternate ‘Bring It On’ ending where the main team comes in second place, and that’s okay because they weren’t the best that year!
And that’s normally where the movie ends.
Except with The Fire Inside, it did not. It followed our main character, Claressa, after she won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. The win was an incredibly moving scene. Both Ryan Destiny and Bryan Tyree Henry were incredible.
She is gonna be a star, I can feel it.
This should be getting so much more attention in the awards cycle. It’s criminal that emotionally manipulative bullshit like The Brutalist is getting all the love when incredibly moving true stories like this one don’t get talked about at all.
Again, I apologize to anyone looking for a real movie review here – my brain doesn’t work that way. This is just word vomit that the movie made me think. I would love to read it if more people did this, so I’m doing it in case there is anyone else like me out there.
The only reason I even know about this movie is because of the night I saw Babygirl.
We were at dinner afterward at a local favorite (Mugly’s), and there was a local movie review show on. The host was incredibly straight-laced and kept teasing that he was gonna review Babygirl, so my attention was kept RAPT, y’all.
While I was waiting, he reviewed a movie about a local boxer called The Fire Inside.
The bartender changed the channel before he could review Babygirl, so I never got that closure.
The second time I heard about The Fire Inside was when it was a multiple Independent Spirit Award nominee.
This movie had no fat – it was all meat, and I cried multiple times.
I loved that the story didn’t end after her first gold medal. And I don’t feel bad spoiling this movie because this is a TRUE story that happened in 2012 that should have made Claressa Shields the same level of household name as Gabby Douglas, who won the women’s gymnastics all around gold that same year.
But she’s not. This movie explores that.
It angered me, it saddened me, it lifted me up, but most of all… it touched me.
I loved it. When it’s streaming, I’ll let you know so you can love it, too. If you really wanna watch it, it’s available on VOD for about twenty bucks.
It’s worth it. And by supporting the movie directly like that, hopefully, it might help the studios realize we want to see more movies like this.
OH, and one more thing before I wrap up – the lighting and cinematography were breathtaking. The variety in skin tones and depths was lovely, and I think more filmmakers should take notes.
