The Fire Inside

Cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Sound of My Voice, Fruitvale Station, Cake, Mudbound, Black Panther) makes her directorial debut with this biographical sports drama about teenage boxing camp Claressa "T-Rex" Shields. The film focuses on the early career of the Flint, Michigan fighter, the only American boxer to win consecutive Olympic medals, and her relationship with her coach, Jason Crutchfield. Ryan Destiny, who broking starring in Star, Lee Daniels' TV music drama, delivers the goods in the lead role, and Brian Tyree Henry, who has established himself as a terrific actor in films like If Beale Street Could Talk, The Outside Story, and Causeway delivers both his most naturalistic and most charismatic performance yet as Crutchfield. Both performances are Oscar-worthy, though this movie may suffer the same fate as its main characters, in that most people don't like seeing women boxing, and that may keep audiences away. (I must confess, I was late to this picture and probably wouldn't have seen it had it not made many best-of-2024 lists).

The screenplay by Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy, Moonlight, If Beale Street Couple Talk) is lean and single-minded, just like its protagonists, only briefly indulging in anything resembling an overtly thematic monologue. What starts as a somewhat by-the-numbers Rockyesqu sports drama about an unlikely fighter from an impoverished background going the distance transforms into a commentary on the sports entertainment industry and its 3rd-class status of women athletes. Morrison proves to be a rare DP who can get excellent performances from actors and never allows the desire for stylistic flourishes to upstage the narrative.