Thursday, May 29, 2025
The Fire Inside
Move over “Rocky”… here comes another boxing underdog story… except, this one is a true story.
Claressa Shields is a young black girl from the hood in Flint, Michigan. She is poor, hunger, & angry. She finds herself visiting a local boxing gym across town. She wants to learn, but trainer/coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) says he don’t train females. But due to her persistence, he gives her a try mainly to shut her up. However, when she shows promise, he agrees to train her but by his rules. Hard work & tough love gets 17-year-old Shields to Nationals, just one step from the Olympic trials in China. Jason becomes her mentor/coach/father figure. “Ressa” valiantly trains & fights hard with Gold Medal dreams & hopefully bringing her some fame & fortune. Even with her successes, the signs of the times are not kind to her & she becomes frustrated by how things have turned out. This is an emotional struggle for these two main characters giving their all to the game they love. There is more battles to this story than what’s happening in the ring. As she suffers through her disappointment, she realizes her future & her happiness. Look for summaries, photos, footage of the real Claressa Shields at the movie’s end.
Alien gives it 3 “T-Rex” stars out of 4.
