Director: Sean Durkin 
Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Lily James
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 132 mins

The Iron Claw is the new film by Sean Durkin, who’s career so far has been very promising. His debut feature Martha Marcy May Marlene was a fantastically prickly psychological thriller-drama, with a terrific performance by Elizabeth Olsen (also making her debut). The Nest was even better, a riveting character study of greed and perceived societal status, with powerhouse performances from both Jude Law and Carrie Coon. The Iron Claw is based on the life of Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) and the wider Von Erich family, who were beset by premature tragedies. 

The film opens on a younger Jack ‘Fritz’ Von Erich (Holt McCallany) performing his signature iron claw submission hold in a wrestling match. After what Fritz considers to be a failed career, the film moves moves to 1979, where he strictly raises his four sons, Kevin, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons). Kevin tries to confide in his distant mother, Doris (Maura Tierney) that Fritz is far too tough on his youngest brother Mike, who would rather pursue a career in music than wrestling. But Fritz is having none of it and like his finishing wrestling move, effectively holds his family in an identical submission hold. 

The Iron Claw is far more conventional fare in its execution compared to Durkin’s previous works but it tells a largely gripping and often grim recount of the Von Erich’s. The film’s bolstered by some terrific performances, with Efron reliably brilliant as Kevin, who has noble and instinctual family values but struggles to carve a life with his own ambitions. Efron has had a fascinating career after his High School Musical breakthrough, and like with his chilling portrayal of Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, proves he is a versatile actor with buckets of range. 

Holt McCallany, who is often lumped with supporting roles in action films such as Wrath of Man, gives a career-best performance as the patriarch. He channels Marlon Brando in his butch, but tired and weary turn as Fritz, a stubborn man who cannot let get of his past and will go to brutal lengths to make a name for his family in wrestling, even if it eats at the quality of his relationship with his sons. Maura Tierney is also quietly brilliant as the quiet and sullen matriarch, who’s clearly faced her own despair. 

The performances of Kevin’s three brothers (technically, there are four but the film omits the youngest Chris) are also admirable. Jeremy Allen White is brilliant as Kerry, who is initially sidelined from wrestling before given a short-lived opportunity. While Harris Dickinson’s performance as David didn’t wow me, I hadn’t recognised The King’s Man and the Where The Crawdads Sing actor until his name appeared in the credits. 

While the film does a solid job of creating a gripping family portrait, the way it does is it is mostly conventional, except for a near-surreal ending sequence that won me over. The first half of the film is pretty standard wrestling fare, chock-full with the sub-genre’s generic constructs, until the darker elements are introduced at the half-way mark. Durkin’s trying to portray both the wrestling history of the family and deep-dive into a familial character study but he falls short on both accounts. Although the film is very entertaining, I kept thinking throughout how it could have done things differently and I think Durkin should have decided to fully explore one of these elements rather than short-change the audience with two.  

While Arcade Fire Richard Reed Parry’s original score is stirring, especially in the film’s gripping opening sequence, The Iron Claw’s music is somewhat squandered by the use of generic pop and rock songs that have simply been overused in too many films before. On the plus side, the film’s handsomely shot by Hungarian cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, who lenses the film with a smoky, grey quality. 

While The Iron Claw is another exciting entry in Sean Durkin’s burgeoning career and represents a decidedly bigger budget effort, the film falls into the trap of sticking too closely with the biopic and wrestling film tropes. Had Durkin decided to focus deeper into analysing the Von Erich familial dynamic or simply just go for their wrestling career, The Iron Claw would be a sharper and punchier piece. Still, what we have is an always entertaining and grim, if rather conventional biographical sports drama bolstered by some terrific performances and handsome visuals.