The Iron Claw (2023) is a drama film from writer-director Sean Durkin. It stars Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, one of four sons of a famous ex-wrestling legend who pushes his children to reach great heights in the wrestling world in the 1980’s. The film premiered in late November ahead of its Christmas holiday release in theaters. Is this truly one of the greatest performances Zac Efron has put to screen yet?
I have never been a big wrestling fan, but as of late I have come to appreciate it as a pure form of entertainment. While it may not be “real” in the sense of sporting competition, it still requires a great deal of physicality, skill, and of course showmanship from the big players to rise to the top of the heap. The Von Erich brothers were not a story I was familiar with when this film was announced, but their tragedy felt like a story ripe for telling a compelling story. It did run the risk of being overly emotionally-manipulative and using the sad story for cheap tear-jerking moments, so I was a bit concerned going into my screening of the film. But I was impressed with Sean Durkin’s command of this story, telling an effective tale of ambition, expectation and loss without stooping to exploitative tactics to draw genuine emotion out of the audience.
From the outset, we get a sense of just how warped and competitive the dynamic between these brothers is. The father straight-out tells them over dinner which brothers he prefers over the others, though also insisting that “the rankings can always change”. That creates an unspoken sense of competition between the already-competitive boys, as they are always seeking to gain validation and approval from their demanding father. Each of the boys also has an established backstory that makes it clear what their role/character arc will be: Kerry is the Olympian golden-boy of the family; Kevin is the wannabe wrestler who struggles to outgrow his father’s shadow; David is the more laid-back type who nonetheless has natural talent to rise the ranks; while Mike wants nothing to do with wrestling and instead wants to make music and enjoy life away from sports. It’s obvious to the audience that each boy needs different instruction and mentorship to succeed in life, and yet their father uses the same, hard-nosed approach with all four: my way or the highway, follow in my footsteps or fall out of favor.
While it may be obvious for most people to recognize the toxicity of this approach, it’s still important for Durkin to establish a happy balance at the start in order to emphasize how hard the family will eventually fall. For all the father’s faults, his approach largely works at first – the boys are happy to compete with one another and push one another to greater heights, and they find early success as a result. Kevin finally makes inroads towards his goal of becoming heavyweight champion; David uses his natural charisma to build a television persona for himself; Kerry continues to make a name for himself in track-and-field; and even Mike is empowered by his brothers to pursue his passions in music with solid results. A film like this will definitely draw audiences of a particular persuasion who might see nothing wrong with this father’s leadership style, and it’s important to establish a common ground morally with such a viewer in order to hammer home the ultimate message that he is the progenitor of all this family’s misfortune in the end.
As with any great tragedy, pride cometh before the fall, and the fall is mighty for the Von Erich family. Kevin is convinced that the family is “cursed” and that misfortune naturally follows them around by no fault of their own. Again, to the keen eye, it is clear that this is not actually the case and the father’s domineering ways are what actually cause all their troubles. Sure, David’s sudden death, Kerry’s motorcycle crash and Mike’s surgery mishap could be waved off as freak accidents, but they never would have been in those situations in the first place if their father wasn’t pushing them to such extremes to reach their full potential. It’s apparent that he is living vicariously through his children and projecting his own insecurities and desires onto them, which leads to severe mental problems that they don’t even recognize in the moment. Kevin’s own story arc sees him realize that the family “curse” he fears passing onto his own children is not a random act of chance, but a deliberate set of behaviors that create a toxic environment for children to grow up in.
I have never seen a Sean Durkin film prior to this, but I was extremely impressed with his command of visual storytelling throughout the runtime. He takes a “show, don’t tell” approach to exposition, allowing us to infer information based on context clues and clever editing to push the story along. The pacing is impeccable, and even as the plot slows down in the second half as tragedy begins to strike one brother after the other, I never felt like things dragged. Occasionally there is some clumsy dialogue that sacrifices logic or natural speaking style for quick information dumps, but such moments are few and far between and did not detract from the overall experience for me. The only scene I felt was unnecessary was a brief “afterlife” sequence in which all the deceased brothers gather together to welcome the latest death, which felt a bit tacky and emotionally manipulative. But other than that, I felt that the emotional ebbs and flows of the story were very natural and well-earned.
The biggest draw to this story is the stellar cast, as the whole ensemble is fantastic. Zac Efron gives his best performance to date as Kevin, the emotionally-stunted young man who thinks he knows what he wants in life but comes to realize just how much his father has dictated his wants and desires for him. Harris Dickinson was another standout for me, following up his strong work in last year’s Triangle of Sadness with another commanding performance as the flamboyant David. Jeremy Allen White is on a hot streak with The Bear and now this, as the troubled ex-Olympian thrust into the spotlight against his will. Newcomer Stanley Simons plays the more sensitive Mike, who just wants to play music and live a life away from the wrestling world of his brothers, and I loved his free spirit throughout the film. Holt McCallany is a terrifying force as the father Fritz, dominating every scene even if he’s not physically present, and I also quite enjoyed Maura Tierney as his wallflower wife Doris, who shrinks away from the spotlight but has her own emotional arc in the shadows as she starts to assert herself more and more while her family crumbles around her.
Conclusion
I was pleasantly surprised by how effective The Iron Claw was at drawing emotion out of a difficult situation. It has a lot to say about toxic masculinity, family pressure, and parents unfairly projecting their own desires onto their kids. It explores all of these themes without getting overly-preachy or obvious in its messaging, which allows just about any audience member to impart their own wisdom or moral from its tragic tale. It’s one of the very best films of the year, and one that I hope is not completely passed over for consideration this awards season!
VERDICT: A
All image rights belong to A24.
Thanks for reading! I’m catching up on a few more late releases before finalizing my Top 10 Films of 2023, which will come out around New Year’s! Check back soon for those, and in the meantime, head over to the home page for more reviews and film analysis like this one. Peace!
-Austin Daniel
Scriptophile 