Movie Talk: the Iron Claw - Wrestling Bros and their Woes -

    A couple of weeks ago I kept thinking about something my father said about movies, and that was: "we haven't had a good drama in a while." That statement resonated with me, because when I stopped to think about it I was surprised when I couldn't think of one. In a cinematic world drowning in tired superhero flicks, the Iron Claw was a nice change of pace.

feels good, man.

    You might be familiar with this story if you're into wrestling (I'm not, really, but you don't need to be.) This biographical work follows the Von Erich family, a group of brothers who take after their father's footsteps and become professional wrestlers. It's clear from the beginning that their father, Jack, is pushing them to do it to fulfill the dreams he once had but couldn't obtain. Side note, seeing Holt McCallany made me miss Mindhunter so bad. I just wanted to say that.

    Anyway, there were some truly strong aspects to the movie. For one, the story is obviously moving. I can't imagine a world where I have four brothers die, all from different things. Despite all of the deeply tragic events in his life, our main character Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) doesn't let it destroy him.

    Another aspect I liked was the brotherly love that you could feel through the screen. In this decade where we seem to constantly argue about what it means to be a man and what healthy masculinity looks like compared to its toxic counterpart, it made the brothers and their story extremely likable and refreshing to me. They are flawed, but so is everyone else. The director (Sean Durkin) did them justice. You feel like you could hang out with them, which made their passing all the more gut-wrenching. Only the good die young. I want to make it clear that, should I make criticisms, that it has nothing to do with the Von Erichs, who seem like wonderful people with an amazing story to tell.

    I always love a good 70's biopic. There's so much you can do with lighting, colors and shades. Men actually wore shorts and looked like they ran track all the time. I find that in a lot of movies set in that period, you can always find a nice yellow tone, classic reds, royal blues. As the movie transitions into the early 80s it starts to turn beiger, browner. Then when it ends in the 90s all the colors are completely toned down. It's small details like that I appreciate. You can tell they spent time making sure the audience knows what time period it's set in. I rolled my eyes when "Don't Fear the Reaper," came on, only because it's such an obvious choice. Other than that, the visual and audio aspects of this movie were great.

    There were a couple of things that I thought could've been a bit stronger and what I think robbed this movie of an Oscar, and that was some of the acting choices. I think their emotional performances could've been pushed farther and that's a shame because I know all of these guys can act. Jeremy Allen White performed on Shameless for years. Zac Efron has many movies on his list. Holt McCallany was in Fight Club for crying out loud. All these powerhouse actors with all this to work with but it's still not at 100% for me.

    For one, White is supposed to be playing Kerry Von Erich, who was 6'2. White is 5'7. Now I'm not saying shorter people can't play taller people but when we're talking about a wrestler here... their sizes are the whole point. It makes me think they picked him for his name alone because a physical resemblance is not there. If I'm noticing this, I can't imagine fans not noticing it. White seemed to be clocked out during the first half of the movie, like he couldn't make the first 2 months of filming or something or he was doing another project at the time. (The Bear perhaps, where he gave the performance of his lifetime) Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it felt.

"screw you I had a good year," is what I think he'd say to me

    There were points in this movie where I was like, how is no one sobbing hysterically? Especially Doris. Imagine losing four kids. Most people can't stomach losing one, let alone four. We never see her cry once. I know the point of this family is that they don't care for talking about emotions, but come on. You can't seriously expect me to believe she merely sits there looking sad for a while. That didn't seem right to me.

    McCallany as Jack was okay, again I know that he has better stuff in him. It may have been out of respect to the family that held him back from portraying Jack as the monster he was to his kids, but the entire motive for all of them to wrestle is his selfishness. It's one of those things where you either go all the way or you don't go at all.

    I also think the story was trying to make a point about American capitalism, because they establish it at the very beginning as Jack does a monologue about pushing yourself as far as you can, even at the detriment of your physical and mental well being. You can tell Doris doesn't like it, but their conflict of opinions weren't explored fully in my opinion.

    What I found interesting was Kevin's monologue about his family being cursed. Whether you're superstitious or not, there's something about this family that just cannot escape misfortune. I find that personally relatable because I often feel like some things are destined to happen, but then again, it's often simply the system that we live in. Kevin's father doesn't seem to comprehend the American dream of success is a facade. Granted, we wouldn't start having these conversations for a while, but what makes me unsympathetic to him is that he understands what it's like when that system is unjust after his match for the title he says is "taken" from him. He gets that the powers that be can sometimes take away all that you'd hope for, maybe even all that you deserve, and then he turns around and points that same attitude towards his sons. Something we've seen time and time again.

    Luckily, it seems that Kevin doesn't carry that same attitude towards his own children, which makes this a bittersweet ending. I know I said a lot about the acting, but I stand by that this is a solid movie regardless, and is definitely worth a re-watch. I'm just a little disappointed this won no awards as far as I know, but I heard it was because Efron wasn't doing promo for it for some reason. Who knows? Maybe it could win something in the future as a classic or something. That's what we need to do: make an award show for media that got snubbed.

this shot was kind of hilarious