“Get Your Money’s Worth” Vol. 2

Welcome back to “Get Your Money’s Worth” a weekly series in which I’m trying to squeeze as much value as I can out of a website I’ve been spending money on for four years.

We’re still watching movies and writing about ‘em! Welcome back to “Get Your Money’s Worth”. Let’s talk about the week in film.

Since the last post I’ve watched:

Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet, Amazon 

The Iron Claw, Sean Durkin, Theater

Showing Up, Kelly Reichardt, Showtime

Margaret (Director’s cut), Kenneth Lonergan, Criterion Channel

The Lost City of Z, James Gray, Amazon 

Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet, Amazon 

The Equalizer 3, Antoine Fuqua, Amazon

Altered States, Ken Russell, Criterion Channel

House of Games, David Mamet, Criterion Channel

If I had a year to process and write, I think I’d love to go in-depth on Margaret being an incredible work of art and storytelling as well as try and explain why it manages to be one of the only good films that speaks directly to post-9/11 America. I don’t have that time so let’s talk big muscle boys.

The Iron Claw dir. Sean Durkin

Sometimes you grow to love a movie as you continue to dig and process and learn things about the filmmaker and yourself. Others you find yourself immediately rejecting for one reason or another. It is something really special when a movie feels made for you from moment one. Sean Durkin’s film examines the story of the Von Erich brothers, their bond and intimacy, and the supposed Von Erich curse. It’s cruel to ruin some of the emotional beats of the story, so I will keep that to myself, but by now most everyone who has an interest in seeing the film has heard: it is brutally sad. Amongst that sadness though is a host of performances that are all just beautifully executed, especially Zac Efron’s turn as Kevin Von Erich. As someone who asked for High School Musical 2 on DVD Christmas of 2007, I have long believed in the power of Efron, but his physical presence on screen is unlike anything I thought we could see from him. Every emotion he wears on his face carries weight and indicates a depth and darkness of the soul, not in a malicious way, but in the same way a person who has experienced great tragedy does. His imposing size and strength add to the character of Kevin, the older brother caring for his brothers in life and in the ring. The sibling dynamic and the individual lives and stories are handled so gracefully by Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons.

It is through these performances along with some wonderful work from Lily James, Holt McCallany, and Maura Tierney that Sean Durkin earns our tears. There are of course the conventional biopic moments of sadness and success, but there is just this extra touch of craft and care put into each decision that sets it apart from its contemporaries. There is a moment toward the end of the film that starts in such a way that I gripped the armrests on my seat. I was expecting a scene so saccharine and poorly executed that it was going to sour the entire experience. And yet, it is handled with so much care and portrays such love and emotion that it was one of my favorite scenes in a film from 2023.

I could not recommend The Iron Claw more highly as a film about tenderness and brotherhood and wrestling and dudes rocking and Rush being a badass band.

Please go see it on a big screen while you still can and I’ll see ya next time.