The Toronto International Film Festival served as the launching pad for the Barry Jenkins -written boxing biopic The Fire Inside , starring Ryan Destiny as the iconic boxer Claressa Shields. The crowd at the Royal Alexandra Theatre soaked up the film on Saturday, a warm receiving of a film that has a top-tier pedigree.
Who is Rachel Morrison?
The film, once titled Flint Strong, directorial debut of Rachel Morrison, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer who received a nod for Mudbound (the first woman to be nominated for Best Cinematography). She is also a frequent Ryan Coogler collaborator, working on Black Panther and Fruitvale Station .
The Fire Inside movie plot
The film follows Destiny’s Shields as a young, promising boxer who wants to get into the ring, and soon begins to hone her immense talent, after being trained extensively by a volunteer coach, Jason Crutchfield (played by Brian Tyree Henry). As Shields quickly establishes her the best of the best and continues to make waves on a local, national, and soon-to-be global scale, Cruthfield becomes more than just a run-of-the-mill coach as she takes her talent to the worldwide stage. And at the same time, she’s not only fighting for and proving herself, she has her family and the backdrop of Flint, Michigan that she’s in all of this for as well.
One key component of the film is that it doesn’t just end with Shields captures the biggest win of her career and something that many people dream of. The film dives into what happens when getting the gold isn’t everything you may anticipated, but just the thing you need to propel yourself toward another fight, both literally and figuratively. A good deal of it dives into Shields’ fight for gender equity, not just within her sport, but all sports.
How are Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry in The Fire Inside ?
This is arguably the biggest role for Destiny, who is most known for playing one of the lead roles in Lee Daniels’ beloved Fox musical drama series, Star. It is a role like we haven’t never seen her in before and she rises to the occasion of playing the groundbreaking athlete. Typically elevating everything he does, that is no exception for Brian Tyree Henry here, as he could easily land in the conversation during awards season– not that the film wouldn’t be deserving of other categories as well. Destiny and Henry are a dynamic duo and the film is smart in letting their character’s bond and these actors’ performances carry it. And it’s a double whammy of a sharp and empathetic script from Jenkins, and Morrison, this time in the director’s chair, clearly utilizes a lot of the tricks of her trade for a solid enough for a debut as a filmmaker.
The Fire Inside debuts later this year via Amazon MGM Studios.
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