January 8, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
A man sits at the breakfast table with his sons and proceeds to publicly rank them from favorite to least favorite, making specific comparisons along the way while reminding them that “the rankings can always change.”
This narcissistic means of control becomes the catalyst for much of the lives of his sons, though surprisingly their relentless desire to please the father in admiration of him never lessens the brothers’ love and affection for one another, setting the stage for an intricate drama of success and tragedy that befell a prominent Texas family in the 1980s.
Though it is firmly set in the world of professional wrestling, writer/director Sean Durkin’s third film “The Iron Claw” is more demonstrably concerned with what happens outside the ring or on its periphery than what happens within the squared circle. It’s a story of family, love and loss that critically analyzes the psychological impact that a demanding father can have on his sons and raises vital issues about men’s mental health and how a code of silence hidden within strength can be used to mask inner turmoil and larger problems that many men will unfortunately never talk about until it’s too late.
Durkin uses the true story of legendary Texas wrestling family The Von Erichs, who lost several brothers in tragic circumstances, to bring to life one of the year’s most emotional and heartfelt dramas.
A film about brothers and brotherhood only works if the cast is able to form a unique bond and chemistry to make their family believable and Durkin has amazingly brought together perhaps the year’s best ensemble cast to populate his world.
In a career-best performance, Zac Efron has a lot of power in his physicality, but a humbling introspective grace in his emotional work that grounds “The Iron Claw” in Durkin’s more stoic drama.
Audiences are able to view the family through Kevin’s eyes thanks to the magnetic ways that Efron is able to portray complex emotion on his face and viewers grow to love the brothers because they can see how genuinely Kevin, and by extension Efron, loves them as well.
“The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White is equally transfixing in a different way as his ability to twist Kerry into whatever emotion is needed to round out a scene was done with a chameleon-esque gravitas.
Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons round out the mix and perfectly balance the two more audacious brothers and gives the foursome the feeling that the depth of their bond is unbreakable despite tragedy and how much their father might want to pit them against each other like rivals in the ring.
As such, the so-called “bad dad” role can easily be overplayed to mustache-twirling levels, but Holt McCallany has a more matter-of-fact approach to the role of Fritz that exudes a mentality of “my boys are going to do what I say because that’s just how it is” frankness in his parentage that is never called into question despite how Durkin clearly shows his issues.
Conversely, the women of “The Iron Claw” are given thankless roles in the narrative with Maura Tierney absolutely crushing an underutilized and devastatingly emotional turn as a mother who watches her family face tragedy after tragedy.
Visually, Durkin approaches “The Iron Claw” as if it were a boxing film rather than a film about professional wrasslin’. There’s an intimacy in which Durkin approaches action in the ring that constantly keeps the camera focused on the family even if they’re simply watching from afar, which takes the drama and spectacle out of the fighting and contextualizes wrestling as just a piece of the family’s bond.
Although physicality in “The Iron Claw” is staged, the actors portraying the Von Erich brothers go for broke by doing the majority of their own stunts and taking real hits that wrestling requires, which can be incredibly intoxicating to watch, especially in a pivotal scene where Kevin’s psyche begins to break as he begins throwing himself onto the mat over and over again.
Perhaps the most difficult and challenging drama to get right tonally, Durkin is able to wonderfully weave the sadness with a heartfelt tale about brotherhood to make “The Iron Claw” a top-ten film to be released in 2023 and something cinephiles should make a concerted effort to see.
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