Soul On Fire Is Trending On Netflix, And As A St. Louis Native, I Have Thoughts

I’ve been hearing about this movie, Soul on Fire, for a few months now. I’m a St. Louis native, and it’s been the talk of the town for a while, because it’s very St. Louis, but I didn’t get a chance to see it when it was briefly in theaters at the end of last year. I did get a chance to watch it with my Netflix subscription, and as a native, I have to say, they did a great job representing the city accurately.

Celebrating The Best Of St. Louis, And The Cardinals, Of Course

The movie tells the true story of John O’Leary, played here by Kissing Booth star Joel Courtney. O'Leary is almost exactly my age, as well. When he was a kid, he accidentally started a fire in his house and was burned on 100% of his body. He was given almost no chance to live, but he survived and has since thrived in life as the owner of a contracting business and as a motivational speaker.

O’Leary, like almost everyone in St. Louis, is a huge Cardinals fan, and the team is featured prominently throughout the movie. William H. Macy even co-stars as legendary announcer Jack Buck, who was the voice of O’Leary’s youth, as he was mine. There are scenes in the new(ish) Busch Stadium, and even a scene featuring a CG rendering of old Busch, where I grew up going to games. But it goes deeper than that on the STL side of things.

They Do A Great Job Showing Off The City

St. Louis has a tricky reputation in the United States, and I get it. It’s had its fair share of troubled times over the decades, and some of its “dangerous” reputation is warranted. However, it’s also a great city to live in and to grow up in, and Soul on Fire does a wonderful job highlighting that. The film also does right by St. Louisans, in that it is clear that the location scouts, set dressers, and the rest of the crew clearly understood the city and how it works.

The locations are fun to spot, like multiple scenes at the Missouri Athletic Club and St. Louis University. There is a super fun easter egg of a location at Saratoga Lanes, a legendary bowling alley in the suburb of Maplewood. Right around the corner from Saratoga is Tiffany’s Diner, where another scene happens. Maybe the smartest location is a scene shot at Humphrey’s Bar. As a student at SLU in the ‘90s, O’Leary most certainly would have hung out at Humphrey’s, so that’s the perfect bar for the scene.

There is a long list of other locations where they shot, like the iconic Old Courthouse downtown, Mercy Hospital, where O’Leary recovered from his accident, and The Shrine of St. Louis Catholic Church, where O’Leary got married in real life. The list goes on and on, but maybe my favorite attention to detail is the license plates. The film is set in four different time periods: 1987, the late 1990s, the late 2000s, and the late 2010s. Each time, the license plates on the cars are the correct ones for those eras. I love that kind of attention to detail, especially when I really understand the source.

It’s A Fun Movie, And Very Inspirational

I’ll be honest, while the movie is fun to watch, and O’Leary’s story is certainly inspirational, it is a faith-based movie, and that’s not exactly my thing, personally. I’ll say it’s not overtly Christian, and it doesn’t pound you over the head with its faith message, and I appreciate that. O’Leary is, by all accounts, a devout Catholic, and so it’s true to his story, which is all a viewer can ask for.

The cast is great, especially John Corbett as Dennis O’Leary, John’s father, and Macy as Buck. A Million Little Things star Stéphanie Szostak plays John’s mother, Susan, and Masey McLain, whom I was unfamiliar with, is great as John’s girlfriend and future wife. Soul on Fire was directed by Sean McNamara, who most notably also directed 2024’s Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as former president Ronald Reagan.

The film does have a bit of a Movie-of-the-Week vibe, and it’s clear that this wasn’t going to ever be a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, but as I said, the whole production team did a great job with what they had to work with. There is a great underlying story here, and if you’re looking for something lighthearted but meaningful, it’s worth a watch. Most of all, though, I really enjoyed how well St. Louis is represented. At least one side of the city, anyway.

St. Louis Hasn’t Always Been Portrayed Well In Movies And On TV

There was a spurt of movies in the late ‘00s that were filmed in St. Louis, most notably Up in the Air with George Clooney and Anna Kendrick, and Meet Bill with Aaron Eckhart, Jessica Alba, and Elizabeth Banks, but those didn’t really highlight St. Louis as a unique city. They could have been set anywhere. They are both movies I enjoy, don’t get me wrong, but St. Louis is really just a stand-in for Anywhere, USA.

There have also been a few TV shows set in St. Louis or in the St. Louis area over the last few years, like Superstore, Sharp Objects, and (though outside of the STL) Ozark. There is a new show, with Ozark’s Jason Bateman, called DTF St. Louis. The thing about those shows, even though they are set in The Gateway City, none of them were filmed here. Soul on Fire is not only a movie about St. Louis, but it was also shot here, and the filmmakers really leaned into the city. I love it for that reason.