This is an adaptation of a 2018 documentary by Andrew Renzi. As is the case, the original documentary often is better than the adaptation. What the adaptation does is put a spotlight on the documentary or real-life subjects being depicted. If you haven't seen the documentary, there are snippets in the end credits here, and just from those snippets, it's clear that the documentary is more interesting and compelling. It's about teenage boys in southeast Washington, DC, who are training to be boxers. The film has a very positive and uplifting message, as well as showing the power of sports and the need for mentorship at times.
The documentary centers on three teenage, Black boys who are training to be boxers in the junior Olympics. The three boys are great and they look like aspiring boxers. This film hires actors to play those boys and the young actors don't truly convince that they're boxers in terms of their looks. They give great performances as these teen boys, dealing with the things that impoverished, Black boys in the inner city from broken homes have to handle. I simply didn't fully buy them as competitive athletes. The real-life boys look like boxers, meaning they're well-built and have muscles. The actors here aren't that well-built. They look like they've never trained a day in their lives. It's not that body shape matters in terms of the drama, but I'm not sure if the film fully succeeds in that dramatic standpoint either, mostly because this feature does less with the boys as it does with another character.
André Holland (Moonlight and Selma) stars as Walt Manigan, a former boxing coach who went to prison for drug charges. He was sentenced to five years. He served three. He was married and has a child. Now, that he's out, he wants to reconnect with his wife and son. However, he's struggling to get a job and make enough money to support himself, as well as prove that he's worthy of being in his wife's life again. A large chunk of the film is about him getting parole and trying to adjust to life on the outside in the wake of being a convicted felon. A fellow boxing coach who works at a DC recreation center helps him and pushes him to get back into coaching some of the teen boxers.
When a feature has such a high-profile actor like Holland who has been in Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning productions, it would be a shame not to use him and give him a role where he gets to do something significant. At first, I thought this film was going to be another version of the recent Ricky (2026) by Rashad Frett. However, the story of the documentary is more about the teen boys. The coaches are there and give context to everything, but it was more about the boys and their home lives. This feature shifts it or tries to balance it, so that it's equally or even more about Walt Manigan and his personal struggles. The teen boys are a part of that, but they feel like more in the background rather than being center stage. There is a way to do a story about a teen boxer and a boxing coach that's balanced. The Fire Inside (2024) was a great example of that, but the teen in that film was older or was portrayed by an older actor.
Anthony B. Jenkins (The Chi and Stranger Things) plays Peanut, one of the teen boys in question here. The actor is 13. Jenkins has appeared on shows like The Chi and Stranger Things, which have teen actors in the forefront, but even the actors in those shows were older than Jenkins and the other boys in this feature. Jenkins gives a good performance in his scenes outside the ring, although they try to build a romance or at least show his interest in girls that doesn't really go anywhere. This feature doesn't really delve into the home life too much of Peanut. The feature delves into the home life of one of the others, but Peanut is the one who supposedly connects with Walt the most, so why the feature wouldn't dig into his life and family more feels lacking. His boxing scenes feel lacking too, mainly because he seems too young for the role, even if he's the same age as the boys in the documentary.
The young actress in The Fire Inside was playing a teenager, yet the actress was in her 20's. Chris Stokes' TKO (2025) on Tubi was also about a teenage boxer but the actor, Akeem Cheatham, was in his early 20's. Cheatham is also super-ripped and muscular that he looks like a convincing boxer. He might not look like a convincing teenager, but that film gives more time with that character and developing his relationship with his father. Walt becomes a father figure to Peanut, but the film really doesn't give enough time to develop that relationship beyond him giving basic, boxing tips eventually. TKO was over 140 minutes in length. This film is only a little over 90 minutes, so this feature doesn't really have the time to do what it wants to do and that's be a redemption story for Walt, as well as be this analysis of teen, Black boys aspiring to be recognized athletes. It barely succeeds at one and rather fails at the other.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 35 mins.
Available on Hulu.
