The Stream: The timeline of the story is confusing and compressed.

The Big Screen: Zac Efron is unexpectedly excellent as the lead.

The Final Bill: A surprisingly emotional movie about professional wrestling told with sensitivity and a strong cast.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Sean Durkin
Writers: Sean Durkin
Stars: Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney, Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Stanley Simons, Lily James, Jeremy Allen White
Genre: Drama, Sports, Biography
Rating: R for language, suicide, some sexuality and drug use
Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
Production Companies: A24, Access Entertainment, BBC Film, House Productions
Platform: In theaters December 22, 2023
Notable Trailers: The Book of Clarence, Love Lies Bleeding, Civil War, Dune: Part Two

Here’s another one that you might have missed over the holidays, Streamers. The Iron Claw tells the story of the Von Erich family, which was a professional wrestling dynasty in 1980s. These talented and ambitious men seemed to be plagued by a curse that led the family to be mired in tragedy when they should have been enjoying success. Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), who is a former professional wrestler himself known for “The Iron Claw”, is a domineering and demanding father to his four living sons, Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and Mike (Stanley Simons). Fritz expects each of his sons to excel in wrestling or some other physical activity, and he will not accept anything less than excellence. His attitude leads to conflict and heartache between him and his sons as they strive to please him. The Iron Claw focuses on Kevin’s perspective as he struggles with his wrestling persona despite his obvious physical prowess and watches his family crumble around him. Pile driving and head locking hijinks ensue.

Sean Durkin wrote and directed The Iron Claw as more than just your run-of-the-mill sports biopic. Durkin takes more of the emotional angle to the story of a family that happens to be involved in professional wrestling. The movie is more interested in the family dynamic, particularly the difficulty between fathers and sons and competition among brothers. Zac Efron understood the assignment. He got in insane physical shape to portray Kevin Von Erich at the pinnacle of his athletic abilities, but Efron also delved into the deeply emotional parts of the story. He is able to show the pain of training and the pain of not living up to expectations. The other actors particularly Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney, as the matriarch of the Von Erichs, and Jeremy Allen White add interesting shades to this complicated family. Durkin also does a great job of staging the wrestling scenes. Those scenes are dynamic and exciting. We also get a glimpse behind the scenes of professional wrestling that illuminate some of the issues that plagued the interpersonal relationships between the Von Erich family.

Apparently, the Von Erich story is well-known in the wrestling world, but if you don’t know it, I’d suggest going in without doing any prior research. I didn’t know much going in, and so my biggest issue with the movie is that it doesn’t establish a good timeline. Everything seems so compressed from beginning to end. Some biopics fall into the trap of being a recitation of a Wikipedia page, and this movie tries to avoid that with varying degrees of success. Maybe Durkin did that on purpose to heighten the drama of the movie, but it confused me. That didn’t dampen my enjoyment of the movie, and so I’d still say avoid the history if you don’t already know it.

Ultimately, The Iron Claw is a good movie about a complicated family striving for success in a difficult sport. The movie does a good job of depicting the strife between family members and how such actions can lead to dire results. The cast is uniformly good, but Zac Efron is a standout both physically and emotionally. I give this movie a bowl of popcorn for a matinee viewing in the theater.