'The Fire Inside' review: In must-see boxing movie, best parts happen AFTER the big fight

With so many exceptional films pouring into theaters at the end of 2024 and in early 2025, it’s our fervent hope moviegoers won’t sleep on the must-see viewing experience that is “The Fire Inside.”

This is one of best inspirational sports movies of the decade to date, and it stands out from so many other entries in this genre for a myriad of reasons, including the fact that the real-life subject of the story is a female — and the fact the story goes deeper and packs a greater punch AFTER the obligatory moment of triumph, which happens when there’s still about 40 minutes left to go. Whereas so many of these films end with the big game/fight/match and a freeze-frame moment of glory before the credits roll, “The Fire Inside” is finding another gear.

Rachel Morrison is one of the best cinematographers in the business, with credits including “Mudbound” (for which she became the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award in this category) and “Black Panther,” and she makes a dazzling feature directorial debut here.

With a perfectly paced and insightful screenplay by Barry Jenkins of “Moonlight” fame, “The Fire Inside” tells the true story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, the only American boxer to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals. We believe every inch of Ryan Destiny’s performance as Claressa, who lives with her struggling mother (Olunike Adeliyi) and her siblings in hardscrabble circumstances in Flint, Michigan. Under the tutelage of the boxer-turned-volunteer coach Jason Crutchfield (Bryan Tyree Henry), Claressa has spent years taking out her anger and frustrations in the ring, becoming a skilled and relentless boxer who by age of 17 represented the United States at the London Olympics in 2012 and became the first American woman boxer to win gold.

For more than half its running time, “The Fire Inside” follows a rousing but relatively straightforward path, with expertly staged boxing sequences, the obligatory setbacks and then the big win with the folks watching back home, etc. Claressa overcoming so many obstacles to win that gold medal is a great story — but once she’s back home, almost nothing has changed.

Jason works tirelessly to make connections in the marketing world and secure some endorsements for Claressa, but the harsh reality is that sponsors had little or no interest in attaching their brands to a Black female boxer. (It doesn’t help that Claressa’s paroled father, played by Adam Clark, resents Jason’s presence as a father figure and seems more interested in cashing in on his daughter’s fame than becoming a steady presence in the lives of Claressa and her siblings.)

For a time, “The Fire Inside” becomes less of a sports film than an unblinking examination of the institutional cultural and racial barricades that threaten to crush even someone who rises to special achievements. We can’t blame Claressa for wanting to chuck away any lingering dreams, to hang up the gloves forever — which makes it even more impressive when she decides to fight so furiously, in and out of the ring. That’s what makes “The Fire Inside” so special.