I have to start this review by admitting that I went into The Iron Claw to see Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron wearing nothing but tight little wrestling shorts.
And I got plenty of that. The movie which tells the (mostly) true story of the tight-knit Von Erich brothers and their rise to fame in the professional wrestling world in the 1980s, featured plenty of shots of oiled-up, muscly, mulleted young men throwing each other around the wrestling ring.
But it’s so much more than that. The Iron Claw is a moving depiction of the pressure put on men in a culture of toxic masculinity and the devastating impact that can have on their mental health.
The film follows four of the six Von Erich brothers — Kevin (Efron), David (Where The Crawdads Sing’s Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simmons). The eldest brother Jack Jr died when he was six years old, and the story of the youngest brother Chris was omitted from the film.
The boys were raised on a ranch in Texas by thei…
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