Review: ‘The Iron Claw’ wrestling biopic has Zac Efron’s best performance yet

Filmmaker Sean Durkin is interested in exploring the dynamics of dysfunctional families, particularly ones with imposing, controlling or otherwise distrustful father figures. In his 2011 directorial debut, “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” the family is a cult, with John Hawkes playing a Charles Manson-like figure. In the semi-autobiographical “The Nest” (2020), Jude Law portrays a pathologically lying cad whose compulsion for keeping up appearances almost destroys his family.

The patriarch in Durkin’s latest film, “The Iron Claw,” is also obsessed with controlling and maintaining an image of his family, one of powerful masculinity. But this is a true story, the tale of the Von Erich clan, a wrestling dynasty who ruled the rings in the 1980s and ‘90s. It’s an almost unbelievably devastating fable of young men crushed under the expectations of their demanding father Fritz (Holt McCallany), who served as the coach, mentor, employer and the overseer of a Texas wrestling promotion that churned through his brood of boys.

Durkin has wanted to make a film about the Von Erichs for as long as he has wanted to make films, since he was a kid obsessed with wrestling. He applies his signature sensibility to this epic melodrama, which has been condensed in some parts to manage the size and scope of this sprawling American tragedy, but is no less affecting.

Zac Efron stars as Kevin Von Erich, a brilliant bit of casting, and this is Efron’s best screen performance yet. He conveys an inherent sweetness, a sense of guilelessness and innocence that serves his portrayal as the protective eldest brother, and provides a contrast to his bulked-up physique. His tender, good-humored nature also stands in opposition to Fritz’s tough expectations, demanding his sons always wear a stoic mask of machismo.

Durkin introduces the thematic backbone of “The Iron Claw” as we enter the Von Erich home, the brothers squabbling over a big breakfast as Fritz ranks his favorite sons. The camera cuts quickly from a framed family photo, to a display of guns, to religious iconography, to sports trophies, telling us everything we need to know about this American fable of violence and spirituality rendered with a Shakespearean level of pathos.

Fritz wants to protect and provide for his boys with sports; their mother Doris (Maura Tierney) puts her faith in Jesus to take care of her sons. Neither takes it upon themselves, but the band of brothers take care of each other, especially Kevin, who strives to excel at wrestling for his father, but whose small rebellions against Fritz pave his path to survival.

“The Iron Claw” is a bloody and emotionally devastating film, but it starts out as a rollicking ‘80s sports romp. Kevin is never happier than when he’s with his brothers: David (Harris Dickinson), Mike (Stanley Simons), a lanky high school rocker who doesn’t care much for sports, and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), a track superstar who returns home from an Olympic training camp after the United States withdraws from the 1980 Summer Games. A family game of tag football and a barbecue is all Kevin needs to be content, but he is tasked with maintaining the wrestling legacy started by his father, who passed down his signature move, a forehead grab called the Iron Claw.

Durkin renders 1980s Texas with fine-tuned detail, and there is plenty of fun to be had with the carefully recreated matches at the Sportatorium, the smack-talking rivalries, the swaggering intros set to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer.” When Kevin, David and Kerry wrestle as a tag team, there is a beauty in the dance of their bodies soaring from the top rope, moving in concert with each other, their instincts honed from a lifetime of play, competition and training.

The wrestling here is brutal ballet, choreographed by former professional wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. Durkin shows us both the construct of the sport, and the very real destruction of bodies both inside and outside the ring. He manages to portray wrestling with a lyrical poeticism, while also maintaining the over-the-top theatricality that makes it so entertaining (Aaron Dean Eisenberg is a standout as the bombastic Ric Flair), and its inherent danger.

Efron embodies all of these contradicting expressions in his performance as Kevin, a naif who becomes all too familiar with life’s cruelties, a wounded brother holding onto his identity with everything he can, who can only express his futile frustrations using his impossibly sculpted body and the tools he was taught.

Ultimately, “The Iron Claw” is a ghost story, a tale of a family haunted by those they’ve lost and their own responsibility in these deaths. It is so much more than just melodrama — it is myth-making on a grand yet intimate scale, a film that attempts to express a small sliver of the Von Erich legend, and beautifully does justice to Kevin’s personal journey.

“The Iron Claw” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language, suicide, some sexuality and drug use)

Running time: 2:10

How to watch: In theaters Dec. 22