Movie Review The Iron Claw

The Iron Claw (2023) 

Directed by Sean Durkin

Written by Sean Durkin

Starring Zac Efron, Holt McCallany, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Maura Tierney 

Release Date December 22nd, 2023 

Published ?

Instead of reviewing what I think is a very bad movie, The Iron Claw, I am going to make a list of the many things the movie gets wrong combined with a list of things the film omitted that might have made the film better. As a wrestling fan, I am remarkably familiar with the controversies, the tragedies, and the triumphs of the Von Erich family. The misery porn that director Sean Durkin is engaged in in The Iron Claw is nothing compared to the real life tragedies and controversies that the Von Erich family were part of from the late 1970s and into the early 1990s. 

What The Iron Claw gets wrong: Spoilers ahead, it's based on a true story, but the movie fictionalizes so much that, I guess, this stuff qualifies as spoilers. 

The Timeline 

The Iron Claw proceeds essentially from 1980 when Kevin Von Erich, played by Zac Efron, met and married his wife, Pam, played by Lily James. While at Kevin's wedding, we see Kevin's brother, David, played by Harris Dickinson fall ill. He's vomiting blood and Kevin advises David not to take a trip to Japan the following week, advising David to get some rest first. David assures Kevin he will be fine and he goes on the trip to Japan. Cut to, Fritz Von Erich alone at his kitchen table, distraught. While on tour in Japan, David suffered from Enteritis and died in his hotel room. 

From Kevin Von Erich's marriage in 1980 to David's death from either Enteritis or a drug overdose, depending on whose story you believe, were four years. Four years in which David Von Erich had the biggest successes of his career. In 1980 he broke away from his father and traveled the country working in Florida, where he played a bad guy for a while, a rite of passage in the industry that would not have been afforded to him by his father. He also went to Missouri and was able to win the Missouri Heavyweight Championship, arguably the biggest solo honor of his short career. 

There appears to be little justification for compressing four years into one week and it only serves to remove the devastating emotional impact of David's death, which is reduced to a single scene of Fritz telling Kevin that David had died. Tell don't show is a plague on The Iron Claw as so many significant incidents in the lives and careers of the Von Erich's are either ignored completely or we are told that they happened offscreen. 

Kerry Von Erich's personal life 

In The Iron Claw you would assume that Kerry Von Erich was a lonely, drug addicted playboy whose only life was in the wrestling ring. That's partially true. But what The Iron Claw fails to tell you, I assume because they were cut for time, is that Kerry was married and had children. In the movie, Kerry's marriage and his children, including future pro wrestler Lacy Von Erich, are never mentioned and completely ignored. As Kerry spirals toward his tragic, far to young death by suicide, his brother asks him about some random woman that he'd brought home for the holidays. She was some woman he met on the road or something. He never asks about Kerry's wife or mentions his children as a reason for Kerry not to take his own life. 

More Timeline shenanigans 

If David's death happened a week after Kevin's marriage in 1981, then Kerry Von Erich won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and at the David Von Erich Parade of Champions event a little over a month and a half later. And, according to the timeline in The Iron Claw, Kerry went out and got very drunk and crashed his motorcycle and lost part of his leg that same night. Naturally, that didn't happen that way. Kerry won the title in 1984, a little over a month after David died that same year. Kerry didn't suffer his motorcycle accident and the amputation of the lower part of his right leg until 1986, long after he'd lost the NWA world title. 

The remarkable and tragic story of Kerry's motorcycle accident. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Fingernails

Fingernails (2023) 

Directed by Christos Nikou 

Written by Christos Nikou, Sam Steiner, Stavros Raptis 

Starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White 

Release Date November 3rd on Apple TV 

Published November 2nd, 2023 

If you could scientifically prove that you and your significant other were in love, would you want that? What does it say about you and your relationship that you would like or need scientific proof of your love for someone. Trust is the most important foundation of a loving, romantic partnership. If you don't trust your partner enough when they tell you that they love you and you need scientific, undisputed proof, that, for me, should be enough to prove that you are not actually in love. The new movie, Fingernails, lingers over this conflict by creating a universe in which love can be scientifically proven to exist between two people and how that effects the lives and loves of three disparate souls. 

Anna (Jessie Buckley) is in a loving, long term, relationship with Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). The two live together and have lived together long enough to have fallen into a comfortable rut, a routine that appears to serve their needs. However, Anna has started to long for something that she can't quite bring herself to admit. In one telling scene early in the film, she mentions how she always gives a certain piece of her food to Ryan. It's his favorite part but it's also a part that she really likes. But, in an effort to make him happy, she sacrifices what she wants for him. 

It might seem like a little thing but how much of yourself, your wants, your desires, you're willing to give up and feel resentment about are incredibly telling. It's one thing to sacrifice for the sake of your partner, but when does that sacrifice become too one-sided and who determines who should give up more of themselves for the other? When is enough, enough? It might just be a bite of food but the deeper meaning attached to it points the way to larger questions that will come to loom over the story of Fingernails. 

The story of Fingernails kicks into gear with a lie, another bit of damage to the foundation of Anna's relationship with Ryan. Instead of seeking a position as a teacher, the recently unemployed Anna has decided to pursue a career with a company that provides scientific testing of true love. It's similar to the place where Anna and Ryan went and got tested years earlier but even more intensive. At this clinic, run with gentle authority by Luke Wilson's Duncan, this clinic tests for true love but only after each couple seeking a test goes through an intensive relationship course that the company believes can set the couple to be in love by the time they take the test or drive them apart. 

Find my full length review at Humans.Media