Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The original, and more evocative, title of boxing drama The Fire Inside was Flint Strong, after Flint, Michigan, home of its real-life heroine, record-breaking Olympic champion Claressa \u201cT-Rex\u201d Shields. Flint certainly makes its desolate presence felt here: having suffered shutdowns in its General Motors plants, then severe pollution in its water supply, the city has become emblematic of corporate disregard for America\u2019s working class. So when Shields\u2019s coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) tells her that she is fighting not just for medals but for Flint\u2019s civic honour, it carries a definite ring.Shields begins as a fiercely driven teenager from a troubled family background; under Crutchfield\u2019s committed tutelage, she achieves glory, but then endures bitter frustration. Through its first half, The Fire Inside seems to follow a standard affirmational biopic agenda, though its generic nature is lifted by Ryan Destiny\u2019s vital evocation of Shields\u2019s teenage intensity, and by Henry\u2019s ability to lift the most routine pep-talk dialogue.But the film really comes alive with Shields\u2019s return to the grinding everyday, as the promised media glory and endorsement deals fail to materialise. The sports business, she finds, is not interested in female athletes. Her naive self-presentation doesn\u2019t help: she can\u2019t understand why it doesn\u2019t look good when she announces, \u201cI like to beat people up.\u201dThe film is scripted by Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight, The Underground Railroad and recent big-budget sidestep Mufasa: The Lion King. Rachel Morrison, who shot Ryan Coogler\u2019s Fruitvale Station and Black Panther, makes an impressive feature directorial debut; cinematographer Rina Yang contributes flashes of showbiz spectacle for the big fights, but hard-bitten, low-key realism dominates. What happens in the ring is ferocious enough, but it\u2019s around the kitchen sink that the drama really hots up.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606In UK cinemas from February 7 and on US streaming platforms now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The original, and more evocative, title of boxing drama The Fire Inside was Flint Strong, after Flint, Michigan, home of its real-life heroine, record-breaking Olympic champion Claressa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196080,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196078\/revisions\/196080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}