‘The Iron Claw’ Review: Zac Efron Shines Center Ring in Sean Durkin’s Devastating Portrait of Wrestling Royalty

The world of wrestling is one of artifice and performance. It is also one of physical sacrifice and passion. In many ways, Sean Durkin encapsulates the DNA of wrestling through the tragic history of one of wrestling’s most famous families, the Von Erichs, by showing the high highs and unfathomably low lows of their history (a history so cataclysmic that Durkin made the decision to exclude the death of one brother in an effort to make the film more narratively and commercially palatable). Do not let the dour description of the film fool you, though, as The Iron Claw is a film of great admiration and empathy. Durkin may have a broad diagnosis for the fate of the Von Erichs, but he also has an appreciation for their commitment and a spiritual, almost Malickian inquisitiveness with regards to their very existence. The impressionistic flourishes and general restraint of The Iron Claw help make the film one of the best of the year and further establish Sean Durkin as one of the great evaluators of American domesticity. 

The Iron Claw dramatizes the histories of Kevin, Kerry, David, and Mike Von Erich through the lens of commitment, be it patriarchal, physical, commercial, or philosophical. Through a combination of aesthetic pleasantness and athletic ability, the Von Erich brothers became some of the most popular wrestlers in the 1980s, operating under the thumb of their former-wrestler father, Fritz (Holt McCallany), who originated the titular “iron claw,” a fabricated move that, in the world of wrestling, transcended the physical plane and took some sort of otherworldly control of his opponents. The false idolatry of this move proves to be a broad thematic summary of the film, as Fritz’s false sense of control and entitlement end up driving his children to participate in a circus of praise underlined by personal lives of pain, insecurity, and harm, be it self-induced or imposed by outside forces. Fritz’s drive to make his children achieve his own abstract idea of greatness, the movie proposes, pushed them into a world of earthly suffering but made them no less cosmically innocent. 

Durkin’s main focus over the course of his 12 years as a film director has been internal manipulation and exploitation, which remains the driving force of The Iron Claw. The film’s main character, Kevin Von Erich (played wonderfully with a knowing beauty and intensity by Zac Efron), is a young man striving for fatherly approval and admiration through physical beauty and athletic conquest. His agony, both physical and emotional, is portrayed perfectly through a combination of intense realism and effervescent abstraction by Hungarian cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, a Durkin regular who continues to display a knack for capturing a sense of melodrama that underlines the relatability of the films he shoots rather than emphasize the heightened nature of a story. 

As the film’s lead, Zac Efron continues to shed the skin of his Disney persona, now playing the eldest brother, whose physical dominance is beaten down by his lack of performative prowess and comfort with domesticity. His hulking frame presents as a predator to be tamed, and tamed he is. His love interest and eventual wife is played by Lily James, who brings an innate charm and desirability to her character, Pam. Efron and James give great performances, but the film’s true power comes from the rest of the family. As the brothers, man-of-the-moment Jeremy Allen White captures the same arrogant insecurity that has made him a television star with The Bear, Harris Dickinson provides an unexpected level of pure charisma, and Stanley Simons brings the vulnerability that could be reasonably expected in the youngest child of a father that seems to love his children less and less as each one comes along. Holt McCallany, who has justifiably had a resurgence in recent years, is appropriately menacing as the driving force of the film, and Maura Tierney gives what will go down as one of the most underrated performances of the year, as Doris, the matriarch of the Von Erichs. Her trajectory over the course of the film is just as powerful as that of the characters who have three times her screen time. In a film defined by masculinity, Tierney breaks through as a provider of perspective and understanding.

The professional successes of the Von Erichs are celebrated with a balance of inner truth and outer perspective that creates a unique cinematic equilibrium. The of-the-time needle drops establish a simultaneous sense of celebration and irony. There is an obviousness to parts of The Iron Claw that speak to the sharp edge of human existence. So many films are dismissed as contrived, but the unimaginable horror of the Von Erichs is an argument for the existence of almost any scripted fiction. At the same time, Durkin makes sure that the love possessed by the Von Erich brothers is absolutely felt. There is a deep-rooted love for each other, a deep-rooted love for wrestling, and, underneath it all, a deep-rooted love of self-expression. Wrestling is an outlet for repression, a way to unleash deeply-held insecurities and exorcize opportunities that they were denied.

Through all the drama and tragedy that plagued the Von Erichs, Durkin is able, largely through one of the best ensembles of the year, to capture a gradual transcendence of institutional shackles. The shadow of death looms around every corner of The Iron Claw, but love and sensitivity are the film’s driving force. Planes beyond our earthly realm provide an existential peace to the dead of all ages, with one overtly spiritual sequence arguing for a peace beyond the cataclysm of the Von Erichs. Sean Durkin’s occasional flourishes of surrealism or cosmic impressionism add layers of complication and empathy that lesser filmmakers would not even think to capture. Durkin is one of the modern masters of domestic dread, but he never forgets that even the most tragic figures are capable of joy.

It would be so easy, in a movie about the Von Erichs, to cheaply manipulate the audience with overtly violent images and cheap melodrama. Fortunately, Sean Durkin has managed to find a level of restraint that perfectly undermines both of those impulses, creating a complicated work that slowly builds to one of the great endings of the year. In a film with Ric Flair promos, suplexes from the top rope, and familial trauma, Durkin’s greatest interest is on the relationship between fathers and sons. Durkin theorizes that while fathers can mold their sons, sons are also capable of transforming their fathers with the most simplistic, childish ideas. The final ten minutes of The Iron Claw are devastatingly poignant, so masterfully defining a cause and effect of the film’s central tragedy, while organically and simply defining a way to overcome. There is a famous term in wrestling that defines the inorganic nature of the entire enterprise: kayfabe. The Iron Claw proposes that kayfabe is merely a means to personal strife; the perceived fabrication of the wrestling world reveals the innate reality of the wrestlers. In fact, wrestling can be a veil to hide behind, a shield for fear and anxiety. Tragedy begets tragedy, sons become fathers; until the cycle breaks. This may just be a link in the chain of existence, a hurdle to overcome to realize family in the truest sense. At least that is what The Iron Claw, one of the most emotionally impactful and formally impressive films of the year, proposes. 

Grade: A

A24 will release The Iron Claw only in theaters on December 22.

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Jay Ledbetter

Jay Ledbetter is a finance manager by day, film critic by night living in Atlanta, Georgia. He began writing about film in 2013 and is not afraid to confront people of all ages if they are too loud in the theater.

In addition to his work at Awards Watch, Jay has written and hosted podcasts for Film Inquiry and InSession Film. He is an auteur obsessive, regularly diving deep into the filmographies of celebrated filmmakers.

Jay is a proud member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle and the Georgia Film Critics Association. You can follow him on Twitter @MrJayLedbetter.

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