‘The Fire Inside’ Review: Full Of Grit, Passion, Power and a Strong Woman Not To Be Messed With

After creating spectacular visuals for films such as Mudbound and Black Panther, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison now sits in the director’s chair for the first time. For her directional debut, The Fire Inside, she surrounds herself with renowned industry talent, such as If Beale Street Could Talk and Moonlight‘s Barry Jenkins, who serves as a writer on this film, and upcoming acting talent Ryan Destiny. Tapping from their unlimited vat of talent, they take on the story of Claressa Shields (Destiny), a teenager who, despite growing up in a challenging and poor environment, dreams of conquering the world as a female boxing champion. While the strong and inspiring feature is slightly predictable and straightforward, it packs a punch emotionally and physically.

Although the main plotline of this feature follows the usual structure – as it takes you on Shields’ journey from being an overlooked female teenage boxer to multiple medal winning champion  – the feature can keep your attention the complete 100% because of the empathy, emotions and humanness Jenkins integrated into the script. Because of those emotions, The Fire Inside is more than just a film version of Shields’ Wikipedia page. Yes, there are the necessary facts, but what indeed electrifies the story are the deep and genuine feelings.

Speaking of Shield, while the story is simple, her life is hard as her home situation is dire, and she faces prejudice against female boxers from a very young age. However, whether it’s a younger her standing up against boys who think they can beat her easily ‘just because she’s a girl’ or the adult Shields holding on to what she believes in despite backlash and criticism from the people close to her, this headstrong woman is not to be pitied or messed with.

Her determination and strongness shine throughout this feature because DoP Rina Yang’s (Nanny, Euphoria) camera never Shields’ side. You get an up-close and intimate view of how Shields and generally female boxers are being treated and how her broken home crumbles down but comes together in times of need. As a cinematographer, Morrison knows the power of expressive close-ups; therefore, she and Yang aren’t afraid of letting the camera linger on the actors’ faces. They carefully bring both sides of Shield’s life – professional and personal – to life with an equal amount of passion, love and determination while also creating enough space for all the side characters. This allows the audience to genuinely understand Shields’ impact on the people around her, the community and boxing world. This filmic approach results in this feature being forceful and exhilarating for the entire runtime.

While it’s mainly the first act that is forceful, adrenaline-fuelled and powered up, the second part is much more quiet, slowed-down and personal. However, the importance of those scenes can’t be underestimated. The continuation after the first climax might feel a bit out of place at first – mainly because that story could have easily been the full story of The Fire Inside if developed a bit more – but the scenes happening in the later part of the feature are equally vital as the rest. Then, the more traditional sports movie becomes an in-depth character study.

It’s a character study led by Destiny with the utmost authenticity and power. Just like the director herself, Destiny understands the power of certain looks and expressions. While the physicality of her performance is undoubtedly impressive, her emotional capability ensures she delivers stand-out acting. The Star and Lower Bottoms actress nails every emotion a teenage woman and female boxing athlete goes through.

While Destiny’s acting in itself is already excellent, it becomes even better during the scenes between Shields and her volunteer coach, Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), because of Henry’s strong work. Although he has recently taken on more action-packed, over-the-top and more entertaining films such as Bullet Train and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he already showed truly emotionally strong performances in Widows and Causeway, and he again does this in this feature. While his flair for comedy and impeccable comedic timing certainly provide the wits and laughter, his expressive and captivating looks are his strongest assets. There’s an undeniable chemistry between Destiny and Henry present, resulting in the warm friendship and coach-athlete relationship blossoming in the most captivating way possible.  

The Fire Inside is undoubtedly a movie that inspires and enrages, daring to question the boys-only club that is the boxing world. The strong leads take you on an emotional rollercoaster and make you feel every high, low, twist, and turn in Shields’ career and professional life.  While some parts of the feature don’t fully work – such as the transition from part one to two – Morrison’s directional debut has enough grit, passion and power to become genuinely believable and convincing.

The Fire Inside is out now in cinemas courtesy of Amazon/MGM