I am a tough person to talk to about biopics and sports films. In a world where it seems like there are already so many great ones out there, everything else often feels like it is just repeating what it knows works. I was curious what my reaction would be, given this genre fatigue, to one of the latest, The Fire Inside, which tells the true story of Claressa Shields, a young boxer from Flint, Michigan, aiming to represent the USA in the 2012 Olympic games. I am happy to say that while this felt very by-the-books in some aspects, it knows when to change it up, leaving me with hope for a future of pushing the boundaries around how these stories are told.

The Fire Inside is renowned cinematographer Rachel Morrison’s debut feature as a director, and tells the story of Claressa Shields (Ryan Destiny), a young woman with a passion for boxing. Local volunteer boxing coach, Jason (Brian Tyree Henry), soon takes her under his wing, and together they train as Shields aims for a spot on the 2012 USA Olympic team. Facing personal roadblocks along the way, Claressa pushes to become her best athlete, in the face of adversity, and never knowing what her life will look like in the aftermath, if she achieves her goal.

It is clear that Rachel Morrison has experience on film sets. Each boxing match, of the many shown, has its own unique flair, and though we watch a lot of boxing, it never feels like too much. On top of this, Destiny and Henry give such impassioned and nuanced performances, playing their real life counterparts so well that tears were shed by the real Claressa and Jason at the world premiere of the film at TIFF. Their chemistry as coach and athlete feels so natural, and that is obvious in every scene they share, and in moments when Jason is absent and we feel the lack of his presence alongside Destiny’s Claressa.

On top of this, the stellar screenplay by Academy Award winning screenwriter Barry Jenkins really pulls this story to the next level. The first 2/3 of the film follow the classic trajectory of the underdog sports story, reaching the final culminating match at the height of the film. But where most films would end, Jenkins still has a final third of this story to tell. We jump to 6-months later, and get to see the life of Claressa in the aftermath of her big match, as a black woman in the male dominated sport of boxing, watching first hand how even someone as successful as Claressa Shields must still face the misogyny that riddles the sports world. We see Claressa, once again, at a low point, and must work with her to find a new high to reach for towards the end, building her confidence up to the person she is today. This unique approach to the classic sports story is a welcomed change, still celebrating the wins Claressa experienced in her sport, but never shying away from the very real discussions on what comes after the camera often stops rolling for women in these male-dominated sports.

The film will inevitably be compared to every other sports biopic out there, or any other boxing film made to this day. Obvious references to films like Million Dollar Baby will be made, if nothing for their shared telling of a woman in boxing. But where this one succeeds, like Million Dollar Baby did before, is in its ending. How it is slowly changing how sports narratives are told, using the text book approach that sports-film fans are comforted by seeing to change the ending and leave audiences with discussions on more than just the big wins of the athlete’s careers. It is what comes after, especially for women and for Claressa Shields, that make this story so special and important to be told. With confident debut direction from Rachel Morrison, a stellar script from Barry Jenkins, and charming chemistry between lead Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside is bound to inspire viewers and (hopefully) begin changing the way sports stories are told on the big screen.

The Fire Inside was screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and will release in theatres in Canada on December 25, 2024. Image courtesy of TIFF.