The Iron Claw
“The Iron Claw” tells the absolutely bonkers story of the Von Erich family. It might be a movie about professional wrestling, but you don't need to be a fan of wrestling to get sucked in. In fact, it might almost be better if you're not there for the wrestling, because this movie is about the family first and the in-ring careers second.
I knew about the Von Erich's, sort of. I knew the name from some buried memory from the 90s and 2000s when I watched pro wrestling as a kid or from playing the video games. But knowing their names never meant knowing their history, and by God, this is one of the most insane true stories brought to the big screen. It's so crazy and unbelievable I don't even want to say anything about it except that I was absolutely unprepared for where things were going. And avoid any temptation to look up facts about the Von Erich's before seeing the film, but definitely look into it afterwards. Because believe it or not, the TRUE story is EVEN MORE CRAZY than the already mind blowing movie.
The cast is incredible from top to bottom, with Zac Efron in a career defining role. I'm honestly so proud to see where he's come from. I remember watching the garbage dump that is “Baywatch” (2017), easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen in the theatre, in which Efron unfortunately co-stars with The Rock. So to see him leave that behind and take on a role here that is nothing short of magnificent is a real treat. You can see how far he's come as an actor, and this really seems like a role he was born to play.
Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson both also bring a lot to the table as the other Von Erich brothers. I would have liked to see them in even more expanded roles, but the film runs in almost exactly at a tight 2 hours, and the pacing is so good that what we get is almost perfect.
Holt McCallany is also a major standout as the father, Fritz Von Erich. He does a great job of portraying probably one of the most hateable fathers in film history. By the end you're just left wondering how bad, or how much worse the real life Fritz Von Erich was.
“The Iron Claw” is easily one of the best movies of 2023, and one of the only drawbacks from this film is that it is actually SO heartbreaking that I can imagine not wanting to re watch it anytime soon. There's something especially dark about knowing that all this happened (and worse) in real life. It's not going to traumatize you or anything (probably), but it's certainly going to test your emotional limits.
9/10
