Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), owner and operator of the WCCW wrestling promotion in Dallas Texas is proud of his boys. Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) is on the US Olympic Discus team, Kevin (Zac Efron) is on the road to being a heavyweight world champion, David (Harris Dickinson) has inherited his signature move, The Iron Claw, but then there is Mike (Stanley Simons), Fritz’s least favorite, who is rejecting the family legacy to pursue music. As the family continues to rise in prominence in the wrestling world, tragedy also seems to haunt them, fueling the rumors that the Von Erichs are cursed.  

The Iron Claw is a sports biopic written and directed by Sean Durkin chronicling the Von Erichs across the turbulent 1980s, a decade punctuated by incredible success and massive loss. Released by A24, the film had a special premiere in Dallas before embarking on its national run. Debuting outside of the festival circuit, the film still landed with a splash being named Best Film by the National Board of Review, and also recognizing the cast as Best Ensemble. At an already impressive 132 minutes, The Iron Claw is a punishing drama more so than a traditional sports film, assembled by Matthew Hannam who brings a nightmarish quality to the editing, we are in the film’s grips from the first frame to the last. This dream-like quality can be held against the film for audiences looking for a more straightforward biography of the family, but Durkin does not anchor his narrative in time stamps as he is much more interested in creating an emotional record than an encyclopedic account.

While all the brothers will get their time in the spotlight, The Iron Claw is unostensibly Efron’s vehicle as everything that befalls this family is ultimately filtered through Kevin’s experience. The Disney heartthrob of the early aughts has struggled after his graduation from the High School Musical franchise, brushing up against interesting projects but never quite having the right creative chemistry to shine. Enter, Durkin, with a role that will hopefully redefine the trajectory of Efron’s middle-stage career. Kevin was written in a way to be an observation about obsession and the pursuit of greatness, of family and legacy, and it allows Efron ample screentime to flaunt his star power, but there is a sinister undercurrent that forces the actor to show off his dramatic chops as well in ways that he has not often been tested. The performance at times channels Leonardo DiCaprio or Joaquin Pheonix, possible north stars for the younger actor, but he still makes the role his own in the brutal and impressive physicality of it all.  

He is magnetic in the ring, and Mátyás Erdély’s camera gets us uncomfortably close as his hulking mass is thrown and slammed onto the mat, the ropes, and the cement floor. The thud of his body jolts inside of us from the comfort of our auditorium seating, and The Iron Claw does not make any effort to hide the strain the sport puts on the body. Wrestling is often written off as fake, but the more appropriate word is choreographed. The film is not too worried about peeking behind the curtain and showing the wrestlers discuss their strategy ahead of the bell, but Fritz will often talk to his sons about how their time is coming, how they are still responsible for putting in the work to get what they are owed, and that they are following the family’s destiny to bring the title home. They need to pay the Federation in their very real blood, sweat, and tears, for their shot at becoming world champion, but the exchange rate is not always clear. The goal, as their retired father lives vicariously through his sons, is always higher ratings, and like any sphere of industry, the people at the top are always hungry for more and do not think twice about the exploitation of the workers as they search for higher profit. The Iron Claw then follows one family who sacrifices everything to the beast that is happy to take what it is given while simultaneously crushing and gnashing them in its teeth. 

Equally stunning in front of the camera and undergoing insane physical transformation are Dickinson and White as David and Kerry, respectively. Both actors have been building strong careers for themselves, each drawn to challenging roles and here, as two of the many fated Von Erichs, they each deliver haunting portraits of men in pursuit of success. There is a shot shortly after a montage showing their rise in popularity as a trio when Efron, Dickinson, and White’s faces are all superimposed onto one another, a moment of unity before all hell comes after them, and it creates one of the most haunting images of the film. Erdély’s camera is restrained to the film’s benefit, letting us simmer along with the characters as they litigate the trajectory of the family business, and later as they attempt to manage their grief. It starts at Kevin and Pam’s (Lily James) wedding, the older consoling the younger David in the restroom when he discovers him throwing up blood in one of the stalls. The two sit down in the cramped unit together, face to face, forced to confront each other, in private and with nowhere else to go. It will be the last conversation they have. From an early age, they were raised to be men, to stomach their feelings, as witnessed in an early scene when Kevin, ever the protector, asks his mother, Doris (Maura Tierney), to talk to their dad about how harsh he is to the more artistically inclined Mike. Sternly, yet coldly, she tells Kevin that it is between them to figure out and not to intervene. In a similar way, Doris is unable to accept grace as she prepares to bury Mike, the third of her sons to have perished after David and Jack Jr. (Romeo Newcomer), shaken that she does not have a new funeral outfit and worried that people will think she is a bad mother, a bad person, a bad griever. Pam attempts to console the woman, but there is no consolation in a house that has only ever seen grief but has never been allowed to express it.  

This pattern of stifled emotion overflows from the screen and washes over the audience as we experience the weight of these tragedies pushing down on us, and towards the end of the film when Kevin takes a midnight phone call from Kerry, his last remaining brother, we feel the cold shadow of the Reaper creep behind us. Calling out to his father, Kevin is again met with the impenetrable wall of the idea of masculinity. Kevin is weak for worrying. Kerry is tough. Kerry is strong. Kerry will figure it out. Kerry will take his life with a bullet to the head while sitting under a tree. Kevin talks to his father in the only language he knows, violence, lashing out against the man, strangling him within an inch of life in the tussle; the old man almost succumbing to the obsession of strength and muscle which he led his children down. 

What follows is a truly tender and surreal scene of the brothers – sans Kevin who is living his life in rebuke of his father’s stoney tendencies – reunited. The love and care that was shown in life only through success in the ring is finally able to be shown as a hug, an embrace. Seen together, the tragedy of their loss is felt again, but there is a comfort as well that had been denied for so long by them and of us, the audience.  

The Iron Claw is a powerhouse film that will shake and rattle audiences because more so than a sports drama or a wrestling film, it plays out like a psychological thriller as Kevin’s life falls apart piece by piece and the alleged curse tightens its grip on the man.  Durkin’s script is well-balanced, but some of the scenes feel a little bluntly worded, even considering the stunted emotional fluency that these characters were raised to have. Everyone is still performing at the top of their game, but none more than Efron who is transformative as Kevin. His arc is captivating as he tries to break the curse, create a better world for his family, and be a better father for his own sons. It is an incredible effort and there is a love and care that is evident on the page as Durkin brings this tragic made-for-the-cinema story to screen. The film is certainly overwhelming but never feels like too much as it navigates this painful story with respect and reverence, and in the closing title cards we can enjoy the success with Kevin who never did bring home the championship belt, but he did get the ranch he always dreamed of which he now shares with his sons – his new brothers – and their families.