Movie Review — Iron Claw

rileydanvers

Jan 8

SPOILERS WILL BE INCLUDED.

There are several movies out right now that I want to see. Most recently, I went by myself to see Poor Things and, while it was a very well done movie, it left me very dissatisfied.

Over the weekend, my partner and I went to see Iron Claw, a movie about the Von Erich family that was inducted into the wrestling hall of fame in 2009. I am not and never have been a wrestling fan, but the movie looked really good and I loved several key cast members, and so my partner and I went to see it on Saturday. I knew nothing about the family going in. I thought it was going to be a story about brothers who are all wrestlers and who compete against each other for the world title.

I was so, so wrong.

I was thoroughly unprepared for the story we were given. I cried the entire last hour of the movie, almost nonstop, and that is not hyperbole. Please, please check trigger warnings. This film deals with topics like addiction, mental illness, suicide ideation, abuse, toxic masculinity, and many other things that are deeply triggering. The film handles it beautifully and with care, but the realities of what happens on screen was almost too much for me to handle. I very nearly had to leave the theater because I was crying so hard, I couldn't breathe.

But ya'll...this was one of the single most beautiful movies I have ever seen in my life. It was produced by A24, which makes sense because they're the best production studio in Hollywood right now. The writing is absolutely genius. The way they encapsulate the connections between the brothers as well as their very toxic, very abuse relationship with their father, is just remarkable. So many of these types of movies have been made and so often the writers resort to cliches or trying to repeat things that have been done before, but this film is different. It's about wrestling, yes, but it is not a wrestling film. The Von Erich brothers are wrestlers, yes, and the movie is about them as wrestlers, yes, but it's much more about them as a family unit, as young men who love each other.

Zac Efron's acting was so incredible, I don't even know how to describe it. Firstly, he is fucking jacked in this movie. Like, damn. But even beyond that, his acting his jacked; his microexpressions, the ways he speaks to reveal vulnerability, the tenderness he shows to his brothers, to his wife, to his kids...there is truly so much that Efron brings to this movie, and yet you forget it's Zac Efron because he is so in character.

Lily James is phenomenal as well. I absolutely adored her character and while I wish she had been in it more, when she is on screen, she dominates. She brings just as much strength and depth and vulnerability as Efron, and I really think the two of them fed off each other in every single scene. They aren't just convincing as a couple, they're convincing as two individuals who love each other and are struggling to be what the other needs as the family's tragedies unravel.

I honestly don't remember much of the score. And that's not a bad thing. I was so engrossed with the story and the characters that I think I just genuinely wasn't hearing the music. I know there was a lot of 80's music, particularly country, in the scenes where there are parties or wedding receptions, etc. But besides that, I couldn't tell you much about the score.

The acting from the other members of the cast is truly spectacular as well. And by the end, all I wanted was for Kevin -- Zac Efron's character -- to be alive and happy. And while there is a lot of tragedy in this film (again, trigger warnings for substance abuse, suicide ideation, suicide itself, abuse, etc), I can say that it does end on somewhat of a happy note. I won't say what it is, but there is a beautiful moment between Kevin and his two boys that absolutely broke me, but was such a beautiful way to end this powerhouse of an emotional rollercoaster.

And I think the most compelling piece of this film is its commentary on the ways in which children will abuse themselves to make their parents proud. And any parent who is comfortable with that is an outright abusive, evil, selfish piece of shit. Not many movies do as good a job at exposing the toxic attitudes and behaviors of parents who want their kids to accomplish what they didn't, and this movie is absolutely one of the few that does. Because while the film does capture their father's passion for wrestling, it is, in no way, a redeeming trait. There's no attempt to justify the many, many ways their father fails them. And so often, even the most toxic of parents are given some form of redemption or justification, so it was refreshing to see that this was not the case in this film. By the end, you truly hate their father.

I want to see this movie again so badly, but I will be an emotional wreck again, and maybe even worse than the first time. And I really want to see The Color Purple next, so I may not get around to seeing The Iron Claw again until it is released on streaming. But regardless, it was a truly fantastic film and I am so glad I went to see it. You should see it, too.