'The Iron Claw' Review: Zac Efron Gives Career-Best Performance in Harrowing Tragedy
Zac Efron gives the best performance of his career in one of the most harrowing biopics made in 2023 with Sean Durkin’s THE IRON CLAW.
The Von Erich family tragedy story is well-known amongst wrestling enthusiasts, but perhaps not the general public, who weren’t born when the events occurred. Long story short: Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) and his brothers David (Harris Dickinson) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) were on top of the wrestling sphere, alongside his father, Fritz (Holt McCallany), who acted as their coach and mentor figure.
However, tragedy befell each family member as if they were cursed by the “Von Erich” name. After their older brother, Jack Jr, died at the age of six, dark energy befell the family, and their incredible success in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) began to dwindle down as each member of the Von Erich family was stricken by tragedy. The first half of Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw shows the rise of the Von Erich family in the vein of a Richard Linklater coming-of-age tale, with classic needle drops like Rush’s Tom Sawyer and Blue Oyster Cult’s (Don’t Fear) The Reaper to represent the supra-masculine energy that allegedly dominates the family’s wrestling style and close-knit bond with the brothers and father.
We’ve got the classic montage where the success of the Von Erich trio grows to inescapably towering heights. It’s all treated in a way accessible to viewers looking for conventional, crowd-pleasing entertainment. Add the insertion of a love interest for Kevin in Pam Adkisson (Lily James), and you’ve got a classic riches-to-downfall biopic. All of the tropes are there, but they’re satisfying enough for you to care about the brothers' bond with one another, even if their father is stern and difficult to work with, but ultimately cares about the well-being and prosperity of their children. Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély shoots in 35mm and captures those moments with an aesthetic deeply steeped into the late 1970s and 1980s that adds to the sense of immersion as we learn about the Von Erichs and their passion for wrestling.
But it’s when things begin to take a turn for the worse that The Iron Claw begins to soar. For those who know what’s coming, it may be easier to assimilate what will happen than those who don’t because each tragic moment hits you like a punch in the gut. Through careful visual choices and powerful cuts by editor Matthew Hannam, Durkin slowly represents Kevin’s descent into horror as the alleged curse befalls each of his brothers. In that regard, Zac Efron delivers a career-best performance that initially bathes in the showmanship required for wrestling stars to be more than their athletic prowess but slowly transforms itself into something darker and emotionally complex.
How Efron balances the two in such an incredibly confident and controlled way is already enough to guarantee him major accolades in this upcoming Awards season. He’s come a long way from the high school boy crush everyone had in the High School Musical trilogy and has always evolved his acting skills into something more serious and true, and he finally gets to show how the times have changed him here. Efron shares tight chemistry with Dickinson, White, and newcomer Stanley Simons, who portrays the only non-wrestler in the Von Erich family, Mike, who has a passion for music instead of sports.
But the real star of the picture here is Holt McCallany, who continues to be the best part of everything he’s in as he masterfully reveals the monster that has plagued the Von Erich family to tragedy. Many people have theories on what went wrong, but Fritz is at the center. McCallany portrays the patriarch with a terrifying glare, always looking at the shoulders of each son, thinking they will bring the titles he had always wanted to snag but couldn’t. One scene, in particular, sees Fritz give an impassioned speech to the crowd as the family is on the top of their game in wrestling, which Durkin treats as the catalyst of the tragedy that ultimately befalls all family members. As powerful as the speech is, observing how much he exercises control over the family is also terrifying.
The Iron Claw’s pacing does grind to a halt when the tragedy begins, but it’s also far more meditative than it had any right to be, with Efron at the center of what he believes is a curse. He’s so scared of spreading it to others that he remains with his father and doesn’t want to see Pam or his kids. We frequently sit with Kevin as he grapples with the curse affecting each of his brothers but himself, thinking there must be a way out of this mess, while his father dominates his life, standing behind him at all times. There are a few lyrical images that bring some spiritual light into the movie, hammering its dramatic and human core at the center of The Iron Claw’s story despite the glitz and glamour that wrestling can bring to a family and a star.
Wrestling fans will adore cameos from popular professional wrestlers, including MJF, Chavo Guererro Jr, and Ryan Nemeth, while non-wrestling fans will laud The Iron Claw for its deeply human story, towering lead performance from Zac Efron and Holt McCallany at the height of his character acting powers. It may not be the easiest movie of the year to watch, but it’s one of the most impressive from a storytelling and acting perspective.