 Early last week, I sat down and I thought, Adam, what are the best films of 2023 that you can think of that you saw? And I made a nice little list. I reflected. I had a good time coming up with them. And then I didn't put a video out because I thought in the back of my mind, you know what? There's always a chance. One or two more great films slips in and dethrones something from my top 10. And that's where we're at today with the iron claw. Possibly the best movie I've seen all year. Let's talk about it. A few factoids to throw out at you right away. Number one, this movie's rated R for violence, some language, and some sexual content. Not a lot, but a little bit there. It's two hours and 12 minutes long. It's made by 824, so that can be dicey for some people. It could go either way. And I loved this movie. It did everything right in my book. This is going to be a spoiler-free review, so if you like what I'm doing here, feel free to subscribe, like the video, share it around, and then just hang tight because I'm going to talk about this movie, but I'm not going to give anything away. Unless you know the story, the rich history of the Von Erichs, who this film is based upon. This is a wrestling family, five sons, five brothers. They will kind of rally around their father and mother, mainly the father, the alpha male of the group. He's toxic. He's a garbage dad in a lot of ways. He's a simple man. He likes his guns. He likes his religion, and he loves his wrestling. And that's pretty much all they do in this family. They eat, sleep, breathe, love, wrestling through and through. Zac Efron plays our main protagonist here. I believe his name is Kevin. I have it in front of me. I'm terrible with names. It is Kevin. Yep, Kevin is the main guy, but we will get little glimpses into each of these brothers and the curse of this family. That's right. There is a curse going on that's dated back generations. This film takes place in the 80s, but the history of the Erichs goes well beyond that. You don't need to look too deep to see what's going on with this family. A father that's very controlling, he's very dominating, and he's just very debilitating to everyone he kind of comes into contact with. This is a movie that's rife with sadness, heartache, struggle, but also celebration. Seeing these brothers come together, how much they love and care for each other and their families, it's beautiful in a lot of ways. It's hauntingly beautiful. It is two hours and 12 minutes. I complained all year long. I'm going to get past it in 2024, but this is the year where I felt that the runtimes just went way longer than they needed to. This movie felt good. It just was paced so excellently. I never found myself thinking, oh my God, when's it going to end? And even Oppenheimer, that's longer than this, I felt the same way. When a movie is firing, I don't have a problem with it being five hours long. If I'm fully engaged, if I'm invested, if the story has some rich history to it, or if it's got exciting moments, bring it on. And this movie has a lot of everything. There's a good amount of wrestling. There's some great training, montage stuff, but not done in a, you know, like a schlocky, rocky four-way, which I also love. But it's done in a 824 more subdued way. A little classier, I guess you could say. Every performance is great, but the big standouts for me were from Holt McAllen, I think that's how you say his name. He's in Fight Club. He's been in a ton of movies, but here he really shines as Fritz, the father, in a very powerful performance without having to go out of its way. You know, he's not like, he's not over the top. He's not going Meryl Streep with this thing. He's downplaying it, but it's coming across as a no-nonsense father who will do anything and everything to put his priorities in front of everyone else. Because the guy, the dad never got that championship belt. He never got the world champion belt in his house. And so he was determined to make it happen through his children at any cost, even if it meant putting one over the other. He straight up admits he's got favorites and he'll pick and choose at the dinner table. Like this week, you're my favorite. We all know that. It's no secret. It's wild. And the mother, you know, in the 80s women didn't have the most say that they do now. And so she was very quiet. She just kind of let him rule the roost and she kind of secretly in the background did things from time to time. But for the most part, she was a little bit of an enabler. And it's sad to see. Zac Efron, though. Man, what a performance here as Kevin. I was not expecting this out of the guy. He blew me away. I've only seen Zac Efron in a lot of the more sillier comedy roles that he does. And he always looks fantastic physically. Clearly he keeps it tight. But man, he transformed himself physically and emotionally in this role. This is an acting role for the ages for him. This puts him on the map in a far more impressive light than neighbors, for instance. This is the role of a lifetime for him. I only see good things in the future for this guy as an actor. And hopefully he can do more roles like this because he proves that he has what it takes. Other things that really work for me, cinematography. I love how this thing is filmed. It is set in the 80s. It feels like the 80s here from the look, the clothing, the music. And just the way that the camera is moving around and just kind of having fun with some of these camera movements and angles. It's not just so stock all the time, which is often what I see with films. Everything feels so manufactured and artificial. This feels raw. It feels real. And it feels like there's some heart put into every single scene in the movie. There's not one moment in this film where I'm watching and I'm going, okay, we're just trying to kind of get this scene done so we can get this movie out the door. No, everything has purpose. Every shot, whether it worked for me or not, has a point to it. When I say a shot that doesn't work, there's one in a bathroom stall where one of the brothers is getting sick. And that camera just sits there and we get a pretty gross vantage point of blood on the side of the toilet. Not huge on looking at that for an extended three-minute scene, but I get what the director is doing. I get why he's kind of showing it warts and all. What's going on with this family? This is not a movie where you're going to watch and get a lot of inspiration as far as, oh man, these guys went against all odds and this was such a great thing. No, this is a tragedy. This is a story of, I don't even want to say redemption because I don't think anybody ever has any redeeming qualities. It's just a movie about perseverance, really. It's a movie about perseverance, about pushing against the commentary that's out there. And for the Von Erichs, it's that curse. It's that association with bad luck and how you can get yourself out of that mindset and how you can turn your life around. And Kevin as a character, I found to be just a breath of fresh air. I don't know how accurate it is to the real guy, but props to him for sure, for overcoming a whole lot of struggle. What an amazing character and what an amazing person he seems to be. I have no notes. I have no negatives about this film. I went in a little bit worried. I thought, okay, is this going to be the A24 artsy bullshit where we're going to have 10-minute camera shots that don't really mean much of anything pointed at the woods? Or are we going to have a bunch of wrestling scenes where the camera is kind of not watching the match and we just see silhouettes or blurred backgrounds? No, they go into it. You see the wrestling. It's really damn good all around. I love this film. Highly recommend you get out and watch it. One of my favorites of the year, maybe my favorite of the year. I'll have that list. I'm going to go through it again and really, really kind of, you know, cross the T's and dot the I's to see where it lines up. But let me know what you thought about this movie. If you got out and saw it already, The Iron Claw, it's in theaters. Not a lot of showtimes for me, but maybe you'll have better luck. Let me know if you saw it. Please put a comment down if you're watching on YouTube. If you're listening on the podcast, maybe you can just like the podcast. I don't even know. It's on Spotify, Apple, share it around, tell people, you know, do your thing. If you really like what I'm doing, you can become a patron at patreon.com slash adamdasmovies. There's different tiers or you can just join. There's a join button right under this video on YouTube for $1 a month or $5 a month. There's a bunch of perks, exclusive videos, et cetera. It just, it just helps the channel. I'm a one-man operation. I would really appreciate it. All right. With that said, have a good holiday and hopefully I'll see you soon. Take care.