Disney’s Wonderboy Rages
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A new Raging Bull, Forest Whitaker's reign, Sundance 2024/A24, and Irish rap.
Let’s go!
DISNEY'S WONDERBOY RAGES
Zac Efron is punching above his weight class in The Iron Claw (2023)
In the film, when Efron takes on wrestling’s toughest fighter, he gets launched over the ring, landing on his backside, the wind knocked out of him.
But there's only one thought in his mind: disappointing his father.
It's a moment that articulates the entirety of Efron's family dynamic in The Iron Claw, where the fierce rule of his father’s iron will, played by the sensational Holt McCallany (Mindhunter, Fight Club), endows Efron with a literal inability to respond emotionally.
What is so beautiful about this film is not the excessive muscles packed on by on-screen brothers Efron and Jeremy Allen White or the stylishly filmed narrative by director Sean Durkin, but the moments of sweetness.
They hold more power than a punch.
From the brothers uniting in a familial hug to a rare moment of disobeying their father to sneak into a music gig, these moments show a wonderfully naive bond.
In The Iron Claw, Zac Efron taps into the live wire of his character’s defining misbelief that an iron-muscled body is a shield against vulnerability.