Oh this one was a good one. Oh this one hurt. I tend to enjoy A24 films, but this one just knocked me out. The story of the Von Erichs is so heartbreaking, and seeing it portrayed on the big screen by some really incredible actors and with really incredible cinematorgraphy was so much. I don't know how much I actually cried during the screening, but it stuck with me after and the more I thought about it the sadder I got. Zac Efron's performance was amazing, and his ability to convey such a sensitive character in that freakishly jacked body and He-Man haircut is genuinely impressive. Honestly, every actor knocked it out of the park in this one, but Efron in particular really stood out to me. Probably because I never knew him as anything but a meme, I never really considered that he might be... good? Great, even? I haven't seen anything else of note that he's been in, but this surely has to be his best performance yet. People would have put some respect on his name otherwise. And they should do that now; my god, this movie.
Interestingly, the production team decided to leave out Chris, the youngest brother, and they changed/skipped some events in order to make the story less sad, which subsequently made it more believable to people who didn't already know about the Von Erich family and all the shit they went through. It's crazy to me how the real stories of these guys is even more crushing than The Iron Claw makes them out to be, but I understand why they did it. There's only so much tragedy you can fit in a two-hour movie before it starts to feel a little exaggerated, even if you're telling the truth. What I really want is a six-part miniseries dedicated to the history of this family, but I don't know if one exists already or if I just have to make do with documentaries and articles. Honestly though, in spite of the pruning to the real story, this movie was amazing, one I would definitely watch again. Though maybe not right now, I'm still too emotionally raw from the first watch-through.
Oh, BTW: I got distracted while writing this and scrolled through the entire Wikipedia page for premature deaths of wrestlers. Real depressing stuff.