An Underrated 2024 Boxing Drama Is A Prime Video Hit After Flopping At The Box Office

Sometimes, even shiny films end up flying under the radar, despite a promising critical reception at the exit. The reasons can be multiple: bad marketing / release strategies, insufficient word of mouth or good old bad luck. Streaming services like Prime Video can often highlight these underestimated jewels, such as Dark Comedy by Jon S. Baird, “Filth, who recently became a success on the streaming platform 12 years after his theatrical release. The same thing can be said about the beginnings on the feature film by Rachel Morrison “The Fire Inside”, which is currently seated at n ° 5 on the list of 10 top 10 of the video premium (via Flixpatrol).

In case you have not heard of this boxing drama in 2024, you can blame the long and troubled production of the film, as well as the fact that Amazon MGM Studios failed to create a media threw around such a promising story before the release. After being presented at the Toronto Film Festival from last year to glowing criticism, “The Fire Inside” was published in theaters in December 2024, but ended up being a bomb at the box office. The fact that the release of the film coincided with heavy box office strikers like “Wicked” and “Moana 2” certainly did not help things, which partly leads to the apparently modest film is completely overshadowed.

While the film 93% criticism on the Tomatometer Speaks about himself, “The Fire Inside” finally gets all the love he deserves, thanks to his recent video beginnings. In order to understand why it is a story that deserves to be lived, we must understand its long date of development / production, as well as why it is such a convincing genre star.

Long before Morrison was attached to the project, Universal Pictures had approached Barry Jenkins to make a film based on the 2015 “T-Rex” documentary, which revolves around the professional boxer Claressed Shields. Although Jenkins remained attached to the film project, Morrison was on board in 2019, followed closely by the tracks under distribution. Ryan Destiny was to embody shields, while Ice Cube and Judy Greer were thrown into important roles – while Greer does not appear in the film for unknown reasons, Cube left during the Pandemic Covid -19 after refusing to be vaccinated. You can imagine what happened next: long inevitable delays due to the sudden exit of the pandemic and the cube, which finally led to unload the universal project.

After MGM picked it up in 2022, Brian Tyree Henry joined the cast (cube replacement), and everything was (relatively) gentle navigation from this moment. The warm reception that “The Fire Inside” received during its beginnings in Toronto was more than well deserved, especially given the long interrupted production nightmare that it should endure to turn into the dazzling art of art.

In “The Fire Inside”, Claressed Shields was determined in boxing, despite what the misogynist boys of Raiir in her neighborhood narrow her every day. She is desperate to escape her troubled house life, convincing the boxing coach Jason (Henry) to let her enter her training club reserved for boys. Now, I know what you might think: don’t all sporting successes start in this predictable format, where an outsider appears victorious after having beaten impossible ratings? Although it may be true, “The fire inside” is anything but a cliché genre exerciseBecause it is intelligent and perceptive sufficiently to the story that is both sincere and sensational. Jenkins’ script is the real star of this elegant and dynamic drama, which is the best of two versatile charismatic tracks that disappear completely in their respective roles.

In most stories focused on sport, the final destination is victory. However, “The Fire Inside” calls into question this notion, because the reputation of Claressa does not go well with the sponsors in search of profit, which always support the patriarchal notions surrounding women’s boxing. What depth does such an injustice are pitching and how did she claress these impossible expectations on her? These responses are both moving and uncomfortable, and “The Fire Inside” is not afraid to climb a trip that puts more than someone in play.