#2: The Iron Claw
Release Date: December 22, 2023
Format: Theater (Cinemark Grand Cinemas in Walla Walla, WA)
Written by: Sean Durkin
Directed by: Sean Durkin
2.5 Stars
The Iron Claw nails the third act, which I guess if you had to pick which act to nail, that would be the one. But for the first two hours I was wrestling - pun intended - with a few different aspects of this film.
The first problem I had is hard to define. I’ll just call it A24-ness. There’s this tonal quality to some A24 films that is oppressive. Movies such as Lamb or Under the Skin - both of which I enjoy - are tonal movies first and foremost. They abandon completely any sense of humor or joy for a singular pursuit of dread and otherworldly horror. The Iron Claw shares this obsession with tone, which is achieved through scenes of punishing fate and personal loss. In contrast, I remember that scene in The Wrestler when Mickey Rourke finally convinces Marisa Tomei to come out and have a drink with him at a bar. They start dancing to a hair metal song on the jukebox and reminiscing about the 1980s and just how fun it was. The audience smiles because they can imagine Randy the Ram in his glory days. The Iron Claw’s glory days just never seem that glorious.
Which brings me to my second problem, well second and third problems. We’ll call them 2A and 2B.
Problem 2A: The Wrestler casts an enormous shadow over this movie. The lineup of wrestling movies is thin, and the list of great wrestling movies is even thinner. Actually, it might just be The Wrestler, which shares tone and theme with The Iron Claw. But The Wrestler imbues its tragedy with pathos and humor, while The Iron Claw follows a rote itinerary of tragic loss after tragic loss. It’s a bit of a bummer. It needs a scene of Zac Efron wearing a silly hair net, slicing deli meat for old ladies at a rundown grocery store.
This leads me to Problem 2B: Zac Efron. If the goal of A24-ness is a deathly serious tone achieved through a gritty realism, I should not be distracted visually by the lead actor. Now with any sports movie there is a suspension of disbelief that takes place during action scenes. Actors don’t look like athletes. I’m not going to fault Zac Efron for being 5’8” and under 200lbs while contending for the heavyweight title of the world. I understand I’m watching a movie. But I was taken aback by Zac Efron’s physical appearance in the movie. I’ve seen him in exactly two movies in my life, this and Baywatch, and he’s absolutely peeled in both. Shredded. Yoked. But in The Iron Claw he has a different face - a wider, squarish jaw - and vascularity that runs through his chest when he first appears on screen. It’s troubling. I couldn’t help but think of another actor that began drastically changing his appearance as he approached middle age: Mickey Rourke. Rourke was exceedingly handsome through his 20s as a leading man, but as the roles dried up so did his physical appearance, or maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, it’s what made The Wrestler such a beautiful redemption tale for Rourke. Older and beaten down, Rourke was Randy the Ram. Randy the Ram was Mickey Rourke. I just hope Zac Efron doesn’t affect his physical appearance so much that he too needs a comeback movie in his late 50s.
But in the third act, the movie finally decides to be pretty. Some might call it cloying, but pretty is the word. It’s okay to be pretty A24, it’s okay.
