Iron Claw review: Zac Efron grapples with the curse of the Von Erichs
From bell to bell, Zac Efron is the main event in A24's boilerplate biopic about one of professional wrestling's most storied, and tormented, families
Film Reviews Von Erichs
In pro wrestling, there are babyfaces (the good guys) and heels (the bad). The best matches tell the story of a babyface overcoming a dastardly heel’s dirty taunts and crooked tricks to win. The famed and supposedly cursed real-life Von Erich wrestling family of Texas was a brotherhood of babyfaces with a heel for a patriarch, and their tragic story is defined by adversity without comeback.
Sean Durkin’s beautifully performed but hurried biopic, The Iron Claw, squares up with the Von Erichs and their near-constant misfortunes. Even in the world of pre-determined fights, where premature death and life-altering injury go hand-in-hand with star-making championship runs, the Von Erichs are an extreme. Once a family of five brothers destined for greatness, all but one remains. In Durkin’s “Inspired by a True Story” telling, brothers Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), Dave (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley Simons) would always submit to their father, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), and his iron claw.
The film opens with Fritz as an uncontrollable Raging Bull grappler in the early ’60s. In tight close-up and stark black-and-white, McCallany inhabits the unflappable taskmaster, doing his best to sell the crowd on the ruthlessness he’d bring home with him. It was no gimmick. Fritz was a stern and unsympathetic father, placing an unsustainable amount of pressure on his boys and pitting them against each other in hopes of producing a world champion.
The Iron Claw centers on a decades-long feud between Fritz and Kevin Von Erich, the second oldest Von Erich after a brother who died in childhood. Fritz wanted a wrestling dynasty that could finally bring the Von Erichs national exposure, and he had a star in Kevin. He was the first to “pop” in Fritz’s World Class Championship Wrestling promotion but not the last. The family can’t even get through breakfast without Fritz asking his youngest when he’s going to start thinking about his future and join his brothers in the ring.
The best parts of The Iron Claw don’t come from tragedy or bouts with Fritz. It’s when the brothers are together, eating burgers and listening to Tom Petty, or locking arms with opponents in the film’s many thrilling brawls. Ditching the omniscient camera work of Fighting With My Family, Durkin’s lens stays within striking distance of the performers. For their part, Efron, Dickinson, and White show no signs of ring rust. Their movements are as fluid as the Von Erichs in Durkin’s recreation of wrestling’s first boom period. But the moments of calm are where Durkin finds his footing, dipping into rhythms that are slower and more lyrical, building on the shared pain and trauma of the family.
The chemistry between the brothers is palpable, creating emotional heft behind each victory and defeat. Efron is the main event as the eternally punished Kevin. An emotionally complicated and physically demanding performance—and to be clear, Efron looks yoked out of his mind—he’s captivating whether he’s drop-kicking The Fabulous Freebirds or eating ribs with his girlfriend (Lily James). He radiates love and anguish as he watches helplessly as one brother after another falls. Fritz uses the chinks in Kevin’s armor against him, attacking any and all perceived weaknesses. Spend too long on the mat recovering from a suplex? Well, Dave’s getting a title shot. He’s better on the mic anyway. The hits never stop coming.
Durkin’s gift is as a stylist, with his camera soaking in the grief-stricken atmosphere until it’s dripping with dread. As in his previous haunted family portraits, Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest, Durkin uses these toxic family relationships to poison the idyllic Texas landscapes, harnessing the characters’ repressed rage and grief and balancing the spectacle of wrestling with the tension of being a wrestler. The director’s recreations of WCCW promo videos hiss with noise and menace as if the next Harley Race or Ric Flair challenge is the beginning of the next tragedy. And, oftentimes, they are.
The opening act of The Iron Claw is genuinely absorbing, with Efron, Dickinson, McCallany, and Maura Tierney, who plays the Von Erich matriarch, Dottie, creating a believable family dynamic. It’s when tragedies begin to pile up that The Iron Claw stumbles into cliche. When Kevin’s Olympian brother Kerry enters the picture, the movie kicks into biopic mode, setting up and knocking down one tragedy after another, often telegraphing the subsequent death so loudly that it feels contrived. Within these stretches of training montages and drug-fueled phone calls, The Iron Claw moves too fast for its own good, and even at 128 minutes, there isn’t enough time to cover all Durkin wants. Another tragic Von Erich, Chris, who also killed himself, was excised entirely. The fake Von Erich, Lance (played by AEW champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman), is reduced to a passing shot in one of the movie’s several rise-and-fall montages.
The Von Erichs were a family of babyfaces, some of the best in wrestling history. They looked and acted the part, but outside the ring, wins were few and far between. Every wrestling match needs a Big Comeback, where the heel allows the face to win the day. The Iron Claw doesn’t even humor one. Hobbling towards its melancholy ending, The Iron Claw reflects its subjects: It looks like a champion but can’t catch a break.
45 Comments
I love Martha Marcy May Marlene. I find it difficult to rewatch very often, though.I’m looking forward to this. If nothing else…I mean, if I did not have a crush on Zac Efron before. Sploosh.
“Once a family of five brothers destined for greatness, all but one remains.”Don’t you mean *only* one remains? (Or, all but one have died)
Going to look past 6’4″ Kerry being played by a 5’6″ vanilla midget. With that being said, this seems decent and we get the always wonderful Maura Tierney.
Oh my god, we can’t even escape you types on other websites! I lurk on some wrestling boards and the use of the term “midget” to refer to anyone under 8′ and 5000 lbs of roided out fury is just bananas.
We don’t say people are bananas around here. Have some respect for the neurodiverse.
“You types”. It’s a pro wrestling reference that those in the know would get. Get over yourself.
Yes. And I’m in the know and I hate the term because it’s weird Vince-adjacent bullshit. Wrestlers do not HAVE to be huge. It’s proscriptive nonsense that flies in the face of a LOT of wrestling history and culture, particularly lucha libre and Japanese talent.
Yes and no. The term vanilla midget isn’t just about size. Its about character. Being vanilla means being boring. And if you’re just a boring short guy in wrestling you aren’t going to make it. Lucha libre actually proves the concept because luchadores, many of whom are short, are never vanilla. They’re never boring. They’re not vanilla midgets.
It’s much less the “vanilla” part of the term than I dislike than the “midget” part. Too many wrestling fans, particularly of a particular era and particular demographic (aka middle aged white guys), think that “wrestler” has to mean “huge jacked asshole”. In this particular case I can agree that it would be *better* to rep Kerry with someone closer to his appearance, including his size, but I don’t like the use of the term to make that criticism. And that’s not even touching on wrestling’s unfortunate history with little people. Generally I think “vanilla midget” can get fucked as a term we use in the fandom.
It’s very much about size. There’s a reason “vanilla giant” isn’t a phrase.
“Those in the know…”You may want to turn off Cornette’s podcast and go outside, touch some grass or something.
I had to stop reading the comment sections on wrestling sites. Too many toxic, basement-dwelling, neckbeard, mouthbreathing incels in there.
I’m guessing they’re mixed in with the never-was Gym Class Heroes and Dudebro Alpha Males. I wish more wrestling fans were like Simon Miller of WhatCulture Wrestling. Yeah, he’s a jacked dudebro but he’s a softie goofball and understands that wrestling should be fun, not some proxy dick-measuring contest.
Well, since they gave some of Chris’ characteristics to Mike, I’m guessing they gave his stature to Kerry.
Don’t you mean “only one remains”?
Sometimes you have to fill in your own blanks around here.
The writing here has become an unintentional Mad Lib.
“THERE CAN BE ONLY FOUR!” – Matty S, quoting what he believes to be the catchphrase from Highlander.
Sure, I’ll watch a roided up Zac Efron do some wrasslin’.
Zac Efron was roided up well before this movie, he just found a project that his little gear-bod is perfect for.
Can’t say that a fun family romp about child abuse and suicide is what I want to watch around the holidays, but I also acknowledge that I’m not the intended audience for this movie. Glad to see Zac Efron still getting big roles after his accident and I’m happy to hear he does well in this film. This sounds like something wrestling fans will really get into.
Fuggit, I’m in.
Someone’s gotta tag you first.
Please tell me it has the famous Kevin line “I used to have 5 brothers, now I can’t even call myself a brother anymore.
Pretty sure it was in a trailer.
I’m hoping we get a scene recreating the interview Bill Mercer did with Michael Hayes where Hayes tells Mercer: “Bill Mercer, you wear that suit long enough, it might come come back in style!”.
Have to say Efron is one of those guys who has consistently been a pleasant surprise. Seems to have taken good advice about sometimes embracing your inner goofiness.
He seems to be silently making his way into the ‘always at least a decent watch’ category. I don’t know of any of his things that really pop for me to rewatch a few times, but I also don’t know of anything the last several years that I disliked by any measure.
His walk of disillusionment through the careers fair in “Bad Neighbours” is when I knew the lad had… it.
Disappointed to hear that the most charismatic wrestler in the business, one Maxwell Jacob Friedman, doesn’t get a more prominent role, but I guess it makes sense to cast wrestlers in smaller roles so you don’t have to expend a lot of time training up glorified extras.
lol… what?
the most charismatic wrestler in the business
No one has more charisma than this guy
MJF is a talent, but he’s in a tough spot. You call him the most Charismatic Wrestler in the business, but you are way off. MJF is the most one dimensional wrestler in the industry, and it’s not his fault. Whoever TK uses to write for him has painted him into a corner that he can’t come out of. Great TV Wrestlers are easily identified by one simple rule. When they are Heels – You hate them, and when they turn Babyface- You love them! Macho Man, Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar, The Rock, Sasha Banks, Bailey…The list goes on and on. MJF is just a dick.. I’m tired of waiting for him to change it up.. and it sounds like most Wrestling fans are too.
Receipts on that last sentence please.
You want receipts? Have you seen the crowds at these Dynamite and Rampage shows this last year?? MJF is the top star in AEW.. If you saw half empty stadiums when Roman Reigns was announced – I’d say you have an argument. MJF’s name doesn’t have the clout anymore, even with BOGO free tickets in every market.
Reigns had a great story with the Bloodline, but he barely shows up for long periods of time. WWE are so inept in handling their main event picture that one guy can basically hold the two biggest belts hostage, forcing them to create a consolation prize for Seth Rollins.
I’m sincerely not trying to be a dick here, but have you actually watched any AEW shows in the last few months? MJF is in the midst of a legendary baby face run, has cut multiple sincere, personal promos that the audience is eating up with a spoon, and has a weeks-long storyline going that’s linked him to not fewer than five other wrestlers. They’re putting a bow on every storyline he’s been involved with in the last four years. It’s actually kind of wonderful.
And, to be clear, I’m far from an AEW/Tony Khan apologist. Their women’s division is absurdly neglected, there are too many risky spots resulting in too many injuries, and Khan simply doesn’t have the imagination to manage storylines for their deep bench, meaning that top talents are left sitting in the locker room, twiddling their thumbs for months, idly texting their agents and other feds. There is A LOT wrong with AEW these days, but MJF ain’t it.
Seconding this. MJF is one of the few performers they’ve gotten consistently right.
Durkin’s handling of dread has been so great, though I haven’t seen his Dead Ringers work or Southcliffe. I like the idea of bringing this into a different kind of family dynamic.
Shame they cut Chris, who I think is such a stark contrast to his brothers. He wanted so badly to be the star that his dad wanted, but his physical limitations were too great, and that disappointment (and drugs, there’s always drugs in this family’s stories) led to him killing himself. The other Von Erichs had all the tools but were pulverized by the pressure to use them, Chris has none of the tools and was haunted by that lack.The Dark Side of the Ring episode manages to do a good job of summarizing all the tragedies of the family. Kevin is still trying to rationalize his father’s abuse to this day. Abuse that pretty much murdered the rest of his generation. It’s so sad.
Seeing as they gave some of Chris’ personality to Mike, I’m guessing that’s why they went with the much smaller Jeremy Allen White to play Kerry and gave him Chris’ stature.
That’s where I heard about this story from.
Does it have a scene where Kerry is so fucked up on drugs that he slices his arm open with a razor blade taped to his finger right before his match with The King?
Durkin gets atmosphere right but his scripts are line for line pretty terrible. Does this break out of that?