WITH THE HEAVILY Oscar'd Million Dollar Baby still hanging on in theaters, and Cinderella Man – the Ron Howard-Russell Crowe follow-up to A Beautiful Mind – opening soon, will there be enough space in the boxing-movie ring for Fighting Tommy Riley? A recent entry at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, this tiny self-starter (approximate total budget: $200,000) follows the uneasy friendship that develops between young fighter Tommy (J.P. Davis, who also wrote the script) and his crusty, Kipling-quoting coach, Marty (Eddie Jones). These underdogs have troubled pasts: Tommy's had a crisis of confidence ever since he bungled a shot at the Olympics, while Marty's "tainted rep" puts him at odds with the world of macho sports. The genre requires director Eddie O'Flaherty to include a few clichés, including the expected training montage; though occasionally hammy ("The first rule of boxing is the first rule of life: keep punching!"), Davis's script is also blessed with fully drawn, realistically flawed characters. Shot on high-definition video that projects nearly sepia at times, Fighting Tommy Riley is closer in tone to Million Dollar Baby than to Rocky, though Riley's utter lack of Hollywood gloss (no twinkly voice-over or last-act heroics here) adds genuine despair to its darker moments. (Cheryl Eddy)