The second movie in my A-List week, I only went to see this one due to Zac Efron and the A24 logo. I don’t want to examine why it is that I find all of the A24 content so captivating for fear of learning how the sausage is made, but I know that Efron has been absolutely killing it in every role I’ve seen him in for the last few years and “The Iron Claw” is a continuation of that streak. I do have some concerns about him as a person though, because he was absolutely positively RIPPED for this entire film and it’s difficult to imagine the regimen he goes through to build his body as he’s done. If you’ve seen the most recent “Baywatch” adaptation, you’ll know he’s been working on his physique for a while, but I think he’s easily put on another 50 pounds of muscle and reduced his body fat even more for this role. Additionally his jawline is a fair bit different now, reportedly due to an old injury causing modern problems AND that ridiculous hair cut that all the men had in this story, I honestly wouldn’t blame anyone for not recognizing him very easily.
Efron is just the leading name for the movie, everyone else in the film represents themselves very well from Lily James to the three other surviving Von Erich brothers played by Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons. Holt McCallany and Maura Tierney are especially notable for their roles as the parents of the Von Erich brood of boys, making things work the only way they know how: either ignoring problems until they get too big to handle or bullying their way to where they want to be. It’s a true story that I wasn’t previously familiar with and to say that they had some drama in their lives is putting it mildly, but honestly most of their issues were the result of pushing yourself to the absolute limit and then some. It’s not a curse when you eventually get hurt after throwing yourself off the top rope 100 times, the law of averages will eventually catch up with you.
It’s an emotional ride and one that I was happy to take. I was happy that I was alone in the theater for the final emotional scenes, there were a bunch of tears both on screen and off.
