The Iron Claw (2023)

I'd never heard of this family before this movie came out and I can scarcely believe that they were real people rather than invented characters in a twisted fairy tale.

Fritz Von Erich was a wrestler with a signature move: "The Iron Claw." Though he never got to be the champ, he expects that one of his boys (maybe even more than one) will bring the belt home. The family, however, has a history of bad luck and all of them have bought into the lore of them being cursed. But, if the movie's even close to the truth, it's pretty clear that the bad luck was actually systemic mental abuse. These boys (and eventually men) were broken down by a sadist and a mother who looked the other way. With only their fellow cult members -- I mean brothers -- to lean on, they never stood a chance. None of them were strong enough to take a stand against their father, who seemed to delight in pitting them against each other and valuing machismo above all else.

It's a nasty, awful story that also suffered from a lack of focus in the telling.

C