The Iron Claw

I didn't grow up watching wrestling, so I was in my 20s before I even considered the sport something worth learning about (and was shocked to learn that some of these macho wrestlers are ardent supporters of women's rights). And it wasn't until I watched John Oliver's 2019 segment on the WWE that I realized how sucky the business of wrestling is--that wrestlers are contract workers who aren't guaranteed health insurance and that they're often pressured to go back into the ring too soon after they injure themselves, which of course can lead to more and greater injuries, addiction to pain medication, and untimely death.

So, I went into Sean Durkin's film The Iron Claw knowing nothing about the Von Erich family except that they suffered from numerous tragedies and were said to have a family curse. Well, the 2 hour and 12 minute film doesn't even have the time to get into ALL the tragedy this family of six brothers experienced. In fact, one entire brother--Chris Von Erich--isn't even mentioned in the movie! But Chris (as well as most of the wives of the various brothers) being left out isn't intended as a snub, it's a conscious choice on the part of the director to make a film that captures the heart of the story of the Von Erich "curse" and the brotherly love that the curse couldn't destroy...without being a repetitive slog by going into death after death after death. The fact is, of the six Von Erich brothers, only one--Kevin--made it into older adulthood. 

Kevin is the main focus of The Iron Claw and is portrayed by Zac Efron in a wonderful performance. Kevin is the oldest of the living Von Erich brothers (his older brother, Jackie, having died when Kevin was 5 years old) but he's the second favorite son. Patriarch Fritz Von Erich (Mindhunter's Holt McCallany) is open about his ranking of his sons, from favorite to least favorite, and Kerry Von Erich (The Bear's Jeremy Allen White) is third oldest but the apple of his pop's eye. However, Kerry is away at college working to become an Olympian in discus throwing, and so Fritz focuses his energy on training Kevin and second oldest (but 3rd favorite) son David (Harris Dickinson) in the art of wrestling. Additionally, there is Mike Von Erich (Stanley Simons), a gentle kid who loves music but gets pressured into wrestling like all the Von Erich boys do.

Look, a lot of stuff happens in the movie and I'm not going to get into all of it. What this movie is really about to me is how an abusive father and an enabling mother couldn't smother the love these brothers had for each other. Fritz Von Erich is portrayed as more quietly abusive--he doesn't scream or hit, but he exerts a constant, crushing pressure on all his sons from birth (and apparently he was way worse in real life than he is portrayed in the movie). Meanwhile, Doris Von Erich was a religious woman who allowed her sons to be abused by their father while dragging everyone to church on Sunday. In addition to straight up playing favorites with his sons, Fritz pitted them against each other to push one (he probably didn't care which one) to rise to the highest ranks in wrestling. And nothing--not even the death of a son--would snuff out Fritz's ambition. He never stopped pushing and it destroyed his family.

To me, the "Von Erich curse" is simply the curse of toxic masculinity. It's the curse of abusive parents. It's the curse of genetic predispositions for mental health and addiction issues which are ignored and downplayed because, well, you gotta man up. It's the curse of wrestling as a sport with little to no protections. Three of the Von Erich brothers died by suicide and one died possibly from a drug overdose or possibly from injuries sustained in the ring. Either way, all of these deaths were likely preventable if these men had sought help, slowed down, and had been supported by their family. They were not, and so they died--at tragically young ages too. 

The Iron Claw shows the various points at which these tragedies could have been prevented. It's frustrating to watch these men put their bodies through hell to achieve their father's dreams. And maybe those dreams were shared by the sons, but it's hard to be sure where Fritz's ambition stops and the sons' ambition begins. 

The film ends with two cathartic scenes that nearly brought me to tears: a scene depicting Kerry Von Erich reuniting with his brothers--including Jackie--in the afterlife. Surprisingly, this didn't feel cheesy to me.  The final scene shows Kevin Von Erich crying while playing with his young sons. He tells his sons "a man shouldn't cry" and they counter with "Everyone cries. We cry all the time." He then tells them he's crying because he "used to be a brother" and his sweet little boys say "We'll be your brothers, Dad." MY HEARTSTRINGS. Again, this scene could have been cheesy, but it just felt right. Like the Von Erich curse has finally been broken through love and a rejection of the old tropes of masculinity. And, indeed, Kevin Von Erich is still alive to this day. He's still married to his loving wife and has 4 kids and a passel of grandkids. He managed to escape the curse.

The film isn't perfect. Some of the writing--particularly the scenes with Fritz Von Erich--feel heavily expository and clunky (I suppose some expository dialogue was required to keep the audience up to speed). But the movie has heart. And even though it's an incredibly tragic story, it doesn't feel unkind or cruel, if that makes sense. Again, the main message I got from The Iron Claw is that the love between the brothers Von Erich couldn't be crushed by their abusive dad, their enabling mom, the brutal sport that was their trade, the drugs they became addicted to, or even death itself. It's a testament to the power of sibling connection and I was here for it. 

Grade: B+

Poor Things

General spoiler warning for this review

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is doing some of the most interesting work in film today. Of his work, I've seen Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite, and Poor Things and even though there are some I love more than others, every one of them is undeniably unique and fascinating.

His films take place in realities that feel adjacent to ours. They are worlds in which a teenager can magically kill an entire family just by wishing it so (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), in which being single is illegal and people who don't find partners within a set period of time will be transformed into an animal of their choosing (The Lobster), and in which a man can take the brain of an infant and transplant it into the body of a dead woman and re-animate her (Poor Things). 

What Lanthimos is really doing is holding up a mirror. His films question why we willingly accept societal expectations that don't serve us. His films are also all about domination and submission: why do we submit to others and to society? Why do we seize control through domination? 

Poor Things seems like the pinnacle of Lanthimos' work. The film takes place in a version of Victorian London. I say a "version" of Victorian London because things that cannot be simply are in this world: a surgeon, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), discovers the body of a pregnant woman who has just jumped off a bridge in an attempt to end her life. Baxter removes the nearly-ripe fetus and transplants its brain into the head of the woman and re-animates her. He names her "Bella" and treats her as a daughter. 

The film opens with Bella Baxter (Emma Stone in a career-defining role) in an immensely childlike state. She walks around without bending her knees, she called Godwin "God", she pees on the floor and smiles, and she can string a couple words together at a time. Godwin hires medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to observe Bella and help her grow and learn. She does. She begins talking in sentences (albeit broken ones), she learns to catch a ball, and her gait improves. But she is still impulsive as a child and therefore Godwin feels the need to keep her inside and away from a dangerous world.

Then, Bella discovers masturbation.

I went into Poor Things fairly blind, knowing only that it was a sort of steampunk, feminist take on Frankenstein. I did not know, and was delighted to find out, just how much of a sexual awakening movie this is. Around the time Bella learns how to "make Bella happy anytime", Godwin encourages Max and Bella to get engaged. He hires lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, in an unforgettable and hilarious role) to draw up a contract and Wedderburn, the definition of a "cad", seeks out Bella and immediately attempts to seduce her. He invites her on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal and Bella tells Godwin and Max that she needs to go with Duncan and, basically, get her brains fucked out and see the world before she settles down with Max. Godwin decides to let her go.

While Duncan is at first delighted to have a woman whose sexual appetite is insatiable, he is very annoyed at her lack of social graces and her seeming ability to separate sex and love. Although Duncan warned Bella to not fall in love with him, it is he who falls "in love" (more like "in jealousy") with her. He basically kidnaps her and puts her on a cruise ship so that she can't just leave him the way she can in Lisbon. On the ship Bella meets two passengers: nihilistic Harry (Jerrod Carmichael) and wise older woman Martha (Hanna Schygulla) and starts reading philosophy and caring about helping the poor. This drives Duncan to his wits end. He "loved" Bella when she was a horny, wide-eyed naif, but now that she is reading and having thoughts and opinions, he is done with her. 

When the two end up in Paris with no money, Bella makes the practical decision to become a whore. She also ends up learning about socialism and that even bad experiences (such as fucking an ugly, smelly man) can make her life more whole and deep. Duncan, of course, is furious and Bella doesn't understand why. She happily lives life in a brothel, spending her spare time reading, auditing anatomy classes, and going to socialist meetings. That's when she gets the news that Godwin is terminally ill. She travels home to see him and he finally reveals how he created her.

Max is still there, working as Godwin's assistant. And he still loves Bella. He doesn't care that she was a sex worker. He wants her to be herself. The two agree to go forward with the wedding, but at the last minute, Duncan shows up with a nasty surprise: one Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott), Bella's husband from the time before she killed herself. Despite Godwin begging her not to go (Max, ever a true believer in the philosophy of "if you love someone, let them go", lets Bella go), Bella chooses to leave with Alfie. Mostly because she is curious about the woman she was before she was Bella Baxter: Victoria Blessington. 

She quickly finds out why her former self wanted to die. Alfie keeps Bella prisoner in his enormous house. He torments the servants and laughs at their suffering. And Bella overhears him planning with a doctor to sedate her and give her a clitoridectomy. Bella now understands why Victoria wanted to die...and she's prepared to make the same choice. In a standoff, she throws a drugged martini in Alfie's face and he ends up shooting himself in the foot and passing out. She drags his body back to Godwin's, where she and Max replace Alfie's brain with that of a goat: "he can be improved", Bella says, ever the optimist.

The films ends with Bella living happily with both Max and Toinette (Suzy Bemba), her prostitute friend/lover who got her into socialism, carrying on the legacy of Godwin's work. Bella, the "Frankenstein's Monster" of Godwin's, is finally whole: a sexual, intelligent woman who loves cocktails, reading, socialism, and cunnilingus. Fin.

So, clearly Poor Things is a feminist tale, as Bella stubbornly steps out of the grasp of the various men who want to contain and control her: she is given life by Godwin and he loves her, but he is overly protective. She is given sex by Duncan, but he is pissed that she wants to have sex with other men as well. She is given a reality check by Harry, the nihilistic philosopher, who shows her what suffering looks like and tells her that no one can change the world, but Bella rejects this. She is given the truth of her life before Bella by Alfie, but he wants to mutilate her to bend her to his will. She is also given things by women: Martha gives her philosophy books, the Madame at the whorehouse gives her a practical perspective on work and life, and Toinette introduces her to socialism and lesbianism, both of which Bella takes a liking to. But the women don't try to control her or capture her like the men do. The only man who seems to truly not want to control Bella is Max, and while it's unclear whether the two end up in a romantic partnership or strictly scientific partnership, he is still there with her at the end. 

Poor Things is also a humanist tale because everything the film espouses--that love is not ownership, that both body and mind deserve to be liberated, and that people CAN grow, learn, and change for the better--can be applied to all people, not just women. Although these truths are perhaps more profound when viewed through the lens of a woman who has not yet learned to be ashamed of her womanhood, they are truths that are relevant and important for all genders to learn. 

Although much of the film is about Bella's sexuality (after all, the biggest, baddest villain of the movie wants to divest Bella of her clitoris), it's also about Bella's mind--and her heart. She comes to understand that while life if full of suffering and we can't end everyone's suffering, we *can* make a difference and we *can* improve as individuals. In spite of Lanthimos' dark, twisted tendencies as a director, he has created a very optimistic piece of art here.

And what art it is! I haven't even mentioned the eye-popping, gorgeous cinematography, the unique and creepy soundtrack, the over-the-top costumes, and the acting. Oh, the acting. Stone and Ruffalo are clear standouts, but everyone is amazing here. 

Poor Things is a movie where every frame is beautiful, every scene is funny or interesting, and the movie is just a pleasure and joy for its entire runtime--plus, you'll be thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. Finally, I watched a movie in 2023, that I can, with no hesitation, give this grade to:

Grade: A+

Stuff I Watched in...November, 2023

The Handmaiden

It's kind of wild that I only recently watched the entirety of Park Chan-Wook's 2016 film. It's the kind of movie other people would watch and say "I bet Jenny loves this movie!" In fact, I watched the first third of it a few years ago with a friend but we stopped partway through for some reason. Which is a shame because the first third is the most boring part of the movie! It gets reallllly interesting after that.

Based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, but set in early 20th century Korea instead of Victorian-era Britain, The Handmaiden follows a con man and a pickpocket who team up to steal an heiress's fortune. The con man (Ha Jung-woo) pretends to be a rich count and the pickpocket, Nam Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), takes a position as Lady Hideko's (Kim Min-hee) handmaiden--encouraging Lady Hideko to fall in love with the Count. After the Count marries Hideko, he will commit her to an asylum and he and Sook-hee will make off with her fortune. But who is playing who in this cat-and-mouse game of seduction and betrayal? And what happens when Hideko and Sook-hee start falling for one another?

This 144 minute long film contains a LOT more plot than what I described above, as well as many, many scenes of eroticism. I ended up watching it after listening to John Mulaney describe to Stephen Colbert how he accidentally watched the very sexy movie with his girlfriend's mom. Whoops!

The film is absolutely gorgeous and super erotic (but classy!). The plot can be a bit confusing at times, but will thrill viewers with its twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Grade: A-

***

The Killer

The latest David Fincher movie is not his best, but is still entertaining enough. Fincher is one of my favorite directors, so I know he can do better. The movie follows a professional assassin (Michael Fassbender, kinda perfect in this role) who, after having a long internal monologue about how good he is at his job, fucks up his job in a huge way: he fails to kill his target. In response, whomever hired him turns around and hires some goons to rape and beat up his girlfriend, sending the Killer (who is unnamed in the movie) on a hunt to track down and murder everyone responsible. 

The joke of the movie is that this supposedly badass alpha male (I'm sorry, sigma male) assassin is actually just a dork who listens to The Smiths, wears a dumb hat, and fucks up his job a lot. But Fincher plays the movie almost straight, so a lot of viewers seem to think that the Killer is the hero of the movie. I don't really think the movie is that deep--it's about a guy killing a bunch of people, and there are some laughs and a good scene with Tilda Swinton. I enjoyed The Killer for what it was, but can't see myself revisiting this movie the way I often revisit other Fincher films.

Grade: B

***

Bride of Chucky

What can I say? Bride of Chucky is a campy, goofy delight. When I was a kid, the very *idea* of Chucky--a doll that kills people--was enough to give me nightmares for months. I avoided watching any of the Child's Play movies until well into adulthood. Strangely enough, Bride of Chucky was the first film in the franchise I watched and it was enough to cure me of my fear of dolls. Well, of one doll at least. 

Bride of Chucky is where the Child's Play franchise splits from more traditional horror into straight-up horror-comedy (although the original Child's Play has some pretty funny moments). Brad Dourif returns to his role as the voice of the little monster of a doll, but it is Jennifer Tilly, playing Tiffany--the titular Bride--who steals the show. The movie wouldn't be half as good without Tilly playing a sexpot, trailer trash psychopath who really wants to kill people and look good doing it. When she rejects Chucky, he kills the human Tiffany and transplants her soul into a doll via black magic. Then the two dollies hit the road, stowing away in the car of two runaway teenagers (Katherine Heigl and Nick Stable), to travel to where Chucky's human body is buried so that he can repossess his human form.

Really fun movie--and, side note, treats the gay sidekick character really well for a movie that came out in the late 90s.

Grade: B

***

Seed of Chucky

The tradition of Chucky movies being weirdly cool with LGBTQ characters, Seed of Chucky follows the child of Chucky and Tiffany--Glen/Glenda (voiced by Billy Boyd). There's a whole plot involving Jennifer Tilly playing herself and getting forcibly impregnated with Chucky's foul seed, but the real story is Glen/da reuniting with their parents. Glen/da is nonbinary--sometimes feeling like a girl, and sometimes feeling like a boy--and, more offensive to their parents, they don't have a killer bone in their body. Or do they? There is some last minute twist reveal that the body of Glen/da is actually shared by two souls: a murderous girl, Glenda, and a gentle boy, Glen. For a B movie about killer dolls, this is an unexpectedly beautiful metaphor for gender non-conformity, isn't it? It also works out really well since Tilly gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and Glen/da is able to transplant their soul into both children, while Tiffany possesses the body of Jennifer Tilly and they all live murderously ever after. 

Yeah, the movie is kind of confusing and playing by its own rules regarding possession and black magic, but hey, it's a Chucky movie. Whattaya gonna do? It's fun and campy.

Grade: B

***

The Others

And now for something a little more dignified. The Others--a haunted house movie starring Nicole Kidman--came out in 2001 and I saw it around that time and have not revisited it since. I decided to rewatch it and WOW is it good. The film takes place in a big, old estate at the end of WWII. Grace Stewart (Kidman) and her two children, Nicholas (James Bentley) and Anne (Alakina Mann in a superb performance as a very strong-willed daughter), live a very isolated life while they wait for the return of Grace's husband and the kids' father from the war. The children have a deathly sensitivity to light, forcing the family to spend most of their time with the curtains drawn, living by lamplight.

When three people show up a Grace's door, offering their services as groundskeeper and housekeepers, Grace is taken aback...but she does need the help, so she accepts their offer and introduces them to the eccentricities of the house. But then strange things begin to happen in the manor: mysterious noises, rooms that were locked suddenly becoming unlocked, and the children insisting that they are visited by a little boy. A devout Christian, Grace refuses to entertain supernatural explanations, instead choosing to believe that her new servants are screwing with her and her children are lying to her. Grace is a very complex character and woman for whom denial is not just a river in Egypt. 

If you haven't seen The Others yet, stop reading and go watch it right now! It's a spooky story that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

Grade: A

***

The Sentinel 

I really wanted to like this 1977 film. The plot sounds fantastic: a woman, Alison (Cristina Raines), moves into a fully furnished Brooklyn brownstone apartment for a great price. She meets strange neighbors, including an eccentric man who invites her to a birthday party for his cat and two lesbians who act salaciously around her. When she complains about these neighbors to her landlord, the landlord informs her that she's one of only two residents living in the building--the other being an old priest who lives on the top floor and does nothing but stare out the window all day. Alison is shocked and we find out that, in fact, the building is where the entrance to Hell lies. The priest serves as the guardian--or sentinel, if you will--to the entrance and the people Alison met are actually the damned souls of a bunch of murderers.

Sounds like a really intriguing movie, right? Well, it actually kind of sucks. It's shockingly boring with WAY too few scenes of Alison interacting with these neighbors and too much time spent on Alison's slick, asshole boyfriend (Chris Sarandon) doing the investigating for her. Also, the final scene is pretty controversial by today's standards: a bunch more damned souls get released from Hell's entrance and the director hired people with facial and physical deformities to play them. While hiring actors with physical disabilities and deformities is generally a cool thing to do, it really depends on the role you're giving them--and these nameless, voiceless individuals were just used to horrify the audience. Ugh.

So, yeah, The Sentinel had a lot of promise but was ultimately a big disappointment.

Grade: C+

May December

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Todd Haynes' latest film, May December, is a lesbian romance. After all, there are two female actors on the poster, one older (Julianne Moore) and one younger (Natalie Portman). And of course Haynes is known for his queer stories, including the lesbian classic, Carol.

But May December is about as far from a queer romance as you'll get. In fact, the film is in many ways about toxic heterosexuality and the ways in which straight culture and gender roles allow for women to get away with sexually and emotionally abusing men.

Portman plays Elizabeth Berry, an actress researching a role. She visits the woman whom she is researching, one Gracie Atherton-Yoo. In 1992, Gracie made the national news because she "had an affair" with Joe Yoo, whom she is married to in the present. Why was this affair national news? Well, at the time, Gracie was 36 and Joe was 13 years old.

May December is clearly inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau, who made headlines for raping her 12 year old student, Vili Fualaau, when she was 34. The two had a sexual relationship and, after Letourneau served time in prison and Fualaau reached the age of majority, married. In May December, Gracie and Joe have a similar timeline: they begin "an affair" (the word "rape" is never used in the film) and are caught. Gracie serves prison time and has their first child, Honor, while in prison. After serving her time and waiting until Joe is legally of age, the two get married and have two more children--twins. 23 years later, Joe and Gracie are still happily married and sending the twins off to college. 

But are things as happy between Joe and Gracie as they say they are? Hahahahahahaha, of course not! Charles Melton plays Joe Yoo in a vulnerable breakout role. Joe is essentially a 13 year old kid in a grown man's body, having been robbed of his teenage years and forced into the national spotlight and into fatherhood well before he was ready. But he cannot talk to Gracie about this without Gracie furiously exclaiming "You seduced me!" While Gracie and Joe present a united front to Elizabeth, we see how Gracie controls Joe behind closed doors. Not with fists or abusive words, but through her emotions--weaponizing her tears and forcing Joe to validate her and drop any questions or concerns he has about how their relationship began. Gracie also manipulates her children, especially her daughters, with passive aggressive remarks about their weight. 

Elizabeth talks to not only the Atherton-Yoo family, but to Gracie's ex-husband, who seems kinda ok with (or, at least, accepting of) the whole thing, though he does refer to 36 year old Joe as "the boy". She speaks to Gracie's defense lawyer, the owner of the pet shop where Gracie and Joe met, and Gracie's son, Georgie, from her previous marriage. While Georgie is obviously disgruntled about his mother ruining his life, most of the other folks seem to be accepting of Gracie and Joe's, er, unusual relationship.

To be clear, Todd Haynes is not accepting of it. He walks a fine line between straight-forward drama and campy dramedy. He is clearly rolling his eyes at anyone who sees Gracie and Joe's relationship as anything besides what it actually is: an abusive marriage between a sexual predator and her victim. The movie is indeed darkly funny. I let out a bark of laughter when Elizabeth tells her director that the 13 year old boys auditioning for the role of Joe aren't "sexy" enough. It's that kind of humor: dark, cringe-inducing, and delighted to poke holes in the bullshit morality and excuses Gracie makes for herself and others make for her. 

May December is a movie about delusion--self-delusion and communal delusion in service of keeping things calm and peaceful. Elizabeth's entrance into Gracie and Joe's lives stirs shit up and soon Joe is both claiming to Elizabeth that he "wanted it" and bringing up the possibility that he was perhaps "too young" to Gracie. What is monstrous is that neither woman is actually interested in Joe's feelings. Gracie is too focused on convincing herself that she is a good person and Elizabeth is too interested in researching her role, no matter the cost. Joe remains a person to manipulate and abuse in service to these women's feelings and goals. 

May December slices like a knife through our shared cultural delusions about teenage boys and full grown men. We assume that teenage boys won't be harmed by having sex "too soon", even though we clutch our pearls at the idea of a young girl having sex. Likewise, we think grown men should man up, force bad feelings down, never cry, and instead be a comforting, strong presence for the emotional women in their lives. By doubling down on their "affair" and getting married, Joe and Gracie swap true justice and accountability for a veneer of happiness that just can't hold up in the long run. 

Grade: A-