Now thirty years ago I was a huge wrestling fan, if I was to go through my mum’s attic you’d probably find some photographs of me with my Brett the Hitman Heart glasses on, or my Legion of Doom shirt proudly on display (Btw I was adorable). But alas my love for wrestling vanished around my 8th birthday still seeing A24 make a film about it, well I can’t help but say my interest was piqued.

And my short review is that The Iron Claw is a tragically beautiful film, but if you want to know more, well dear reader pull up a chair and let me tell you more. So before we get into it, some of you may be wandering, what is an Iron Claw?

So the Iron Claw was the signature move of the now legendary Fritz Von Erich aka Jack Barton Adkisson. Back in the 60’s he made a huge name for himself before retiring and training his sons to fight in the ring.

So what’s so interesting about this wrestling family?

Well the Von Erich family is supposedly cursed, I’m not one to put stock in such things, but they are a family that suffered many tragedies. To put it plainly before his death Jack managed to outlive 5 of his 6 children…

Though Jack is an integral part of the film, more precisely his terrible parenting, the main stars of the movie are his sons. For that we have four great performances by Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich, Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich and Stanley Simons as Mike Von Erich.

All four manage to bring a wonderful child-like innocence to the movie, and you could easily see the lads as real life brothers.

Of course Zac definitely stands out and once again proves to us why he is no longer the kid from High School Musical.

And for some reason I had a real fondness for Holt McCallany as the boys overbearing father. A man who pushed his kids too far and a stubborn man in the wrong age. Don’t get me wrong he was a right bastard, but he was still a man and Holt’s performance is full of nuance.

And Lily James appears as Kevin’s wife, she manages to bring a wonderful tender fire to this movie that just helps complete it, and the film would be seriously lacking without her.

Completing this movie is some utterly gorgeous cinematography and a fantastic soundtrack. It’s a movie that will break your heart, but in that special perfect way that only a movie can, this one is really worth seeing.