The Iron Claw (15, 132 minutes)
Of all the American families whose fame has crossed the Atlantic – those Kennedys, Kardashians, Osmonds, Partridges – few of us would think to include the Von Erichs, a Texas wrestling dynasty.
But don’t let that deter you from seeing The Iron Claw, a gripping biopic that presents their story as a heady cocktail of one part triumph to four parts tragedy.
Set primarily in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it focuses on Kevin Von Erich, in which Zac Efron gives the performance of his career.
The pretty boy from the High School Musical trilogy and other frothy comedies has become a truly substantial dramatic actor.
Lily James continues to improve too. As Kevin’s sweetheart Pam, later his wife, she is excellent and as convincing as the mesquite-smoked brisket.
Left to right: The Iron Claw stars Harris Dickinson, Zac Efron, Stanley Simons and Jeremy Allen White as the Von Erich siblings.
Lily James plays Pam, Kevin’s (Zac Efron) sweetheart, who later becomes his wife. It’s excellent and as convincing as the mesquite-smoked brisket.
In this particular case, the film is also about the bonds of brotherhood, as well as toxic fatherhood.
I don’t have to say they’re that tasty, even though they would be in the movie. These are unreconstructed times. “You drop this off, someone else will pick it up,” Kevin’s father tells him approvingly, after meeting Pam.
Kevin is the eldest son of Fritz (Holt McCallany) and Doris (Maura Tierney), whose firstborn died in infancy.
He has three younger brothers: David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simons).
Everyone grew up in Fritz’s shadow.
Fritz is a former wrestling champion whose signature move was the eponymous “iron claw”, a type of one-handed vice grip.
And his dearest wish, expressed without ambiguity, is that all his boys follow him into the ring.
One of them, Mike, is not as strong and athletic as the others. He prefers his guitar to wrestling, which is why Fritz proclaims him his least favorite.
He doesn’t mind if his sons know how he orders his favorites, he even considers it an incentive to make him proud. “The rankings can always change,” he told them.
In the autocratic father department, Fritz makes his cinematic colleague “Von,” Christopher Plummer’s Captain Von Trapp, look like a sack of mush.
And at least the Captain melted into The Sound Of Music. Fritz never does, even when his uncompromising demands on his sons lead, inexorably, to a domestic calamity of almost operatic scale.
There are a lot of really good fight scenes in The Iron Claw, even if writer-director Sean Durkin never really reveals how much of the fights are choreographed in advance.
Wonderfully performed on every level, The Iron Claw is a terrific drama about an ignorant family, but it also makes us think about the dynamics of our own clan. The photo shows Jeremy Allen White as Kerry
Ahead of the professional wrestling biopic’s premiere, Zac Efron, 36, spoke candidly about the intense preparation he put into the film and admitted he became “obsessed.”
There are a lot of really good fight scenes in The Iron Claw, although writer-director Sean Durkin never really reveals how much of the fights are choreographed in advance, like those of us who grew up watching Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy on ITV on Saturday afternoons always knew they were.
Anyway, like all the best sports biopics like Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), which rather evokes The Iron Claw in its first black and white scenes, this film is not so much about sports as about character, of dynamism, of fragilities. and relationships – those things that motivate us all.
In this particular case, it is also about brotherhood bonds, as well as toxic fatherhood.
Kevin must stay on the sidelines as Fritz first nominates Dave as the most likely world champion, then Kerry, who came late to the fight after being forced to give up the discus, following the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
It’s difficult for him to suppress his own dreams while watching his brothers realize theirs, but Kevin is a fairly simple soul, in whom brotherly love burns even brighter than personal ambition.
All of which makes it truly heartbreaking when, in ways I shouldn’t reveal, tragedy strikes each of his siblings, giving shape to what Kevin naturally believes to be a family curse.
Wonderfully performed on every level, The Iron Claw is a terrific drama about an ignorant family, but it also makes us think about the dynamics of our own clan.
In any case, it did me good. I wouldn’t even metaphorically pin you on the canvas before you agree to go see it, but it’s as beautiful and interesting a film, in its own way, as Foxcatcher (2014), another gripping story ostensibly about wrestling.
The Iron Claw is now in theaters.
Bob Marley: One Love (12A, 104 minutes)
At the exact time the Von Erich boys were making their mark, so was Bob Marley: One Love.
Reinaldo Marcus Green’s film is another biopic, but as such it is diminished in a logical way when the final credits reveal the names of the producers: the powerful reggae star’s son Ziggy Marley, his daughter Cedella and his widow Rita.
Is it love? And love, yes.
The Reinaldo Marcus Green film is another biopic, but the producers include the reggae star’s son Ziggy Marley, his daughter Cedella and his widow Rita.
Kingsley Ben-Adir (left) is truly splendid in the title role and has strong support from Lashana Lynch as Rita (right).
The film covers this fascinating period leading up to Marley’s famous One Love concert in Jamaica in 1978, when after surviving an assassination attempt, he escaped the savage violence tearing apart his home island and holed up in London .
The film covers this fascinating period leading up to Marley’s famous One Love concert in Jamaica in 1978, when after surviving an assassination attempt, he escaped the savage violence tearing apart his home island and holed up in London , where he and his band, the Wailers, recorded their masterful album, Exodus.
Kingsley Ben-Adir is truly splendid in the title role and has strong support from Lashana Lynch as Rita, although the two Brits give such free rein to the couple’s Jamaican accents that the subtitles wouldn’t be out of place.
There are good times, but not everything is good.
James Norton is surprisingly dripping as legendary record producer Chris Blackwell; and Marley fans, even those who grant it the same messianic status as the film, should recognize it as a hagiography.
There is no reference, for example, to the intense affair he conducted in London with the reigning Miss World, fellow Jamaican Cindy Breakspeare.
On the other hand, the music is fabulous.
Bob Marley: One Love hits theaters on Wednesday, February 14.