You might be wondering if Anderson Cooper has anyone special to kiss when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
12.12.2023 - 14:31 / variety.com
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Gladiators, pain freaks, brutes, clowns, true athletes, fake competitors: The slab-of-meat stars of professional wrestling are all those things. And back in the 1980s, when wrestling was reaching its cultural zenith, it almost looked as if you could divide the world between those who took wrestling on the level and those who dismissed it as a vulgar, over-the-top bad joke.
Yet it was never that simple. Even if you saw through the put-on nature of wrestling, you could still get off on the theater of it as cartoon spectacle.
And a great many hard-core wrestling fans were actually in on the joke. They knew, on some level, that they were watching staged antics, yet that didn’t keep them from experiencing it all as “real.” If you’re wondering how that kind of cognitive dissonance works, welcome to the America that pro wrestling helped to usher in — an America in which Donald Trump, who used pro wrestling to boost his own celebrity, could build his presidential aspirations on fakery and still be “believed” by people who don’t care that he’s fooling them.
All of which makes “The Iron Claw,” a true-life wrestling saga set in the late ’70s and early ’80s, with an ensemble cast featuring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White, a perfect movie for this moment. The writer-director, Sean Durkin (who made the chilling cult drama “Martha Marcy May Marlene” a dozen years ago and then slipped under the radar), tells the story of the Von Erich family, a dynasty of wrestlers from Texas who won championships, found enormous popularity, and put their stamp on a sport that was only then establishing its larger-than-life imprint.
You might be wondering if Anderson Cooper has anyone special to kiss when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Vanessa Hudgens and her husband, Cole Tucker’s, first Christmas as newlyweds, and she shared an adorable selfie, smiling brightly with the pro baseball player. The photo was taken at a golf course, which triggered a High School Musical 2 memory for fans.
Princess Catherine is over wasting her energy on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle!
The Iron Claw is officially out in theaters! Starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons, the film tells the story of the Von Erich family. White plays Kerry Von Erich, the “Modern Day Warrior,” who became a beloved wrestling superstar worldwide before he died by suicide. To play the role, White had to fit the part, and with training and a lot of eating, he gained 40 pounds of muscle.The 32-year-old star had to live by a strict training regime and consume a lot of calories.
Jaden Thompson Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White turned heads this year when fans noticed they packed on pounds of muscle for their A24 wrestling drama “The Iron Claw,” which is based on the lives of the Von Erich brothers. Efron, Allen and the rest of the cast put in serious work to look the part for the film — but once they gained that muscle, how did they perfect those wrestling moves? Chavo Guerrero, Jr., former pro wrestler and stunt coordinator on “The Iron Claw,” speaks with Variety to unpack the actors’ intensive training process. After communicating with director Sean Durkin about his vision for the film, Guerrero began by acquainting the actors with the wrestling ring and the fundamentals of the sport.
Zac Efron is back on the big screen with his new A24 movie The Iron Claw.
Watching “The Iron Claw” can feel like getting slammed with a metal folding chair over and over again.So bludgeoning are the true and tragic circumstances that befell the famous Von Erich wresting family during the 1980s and 90s, which director Sean Durkin’s film depicts.Running time: 130 minutes. Rated R (language, suicide, some sexuality and drug use.) In theaters.Starting about halfway through the movie that stars Zac Efron in prime meathead mode, a shaken man sitting next to me in the theater repeatedly whispered “What the f–k?” about fifty times.
during an interview on the “Today” show — due to an eye infection. Efron, alongside co-stars Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons, appeared on the morning program to promote their new film, “The Iron Claw.” “Zac Efron is a legitimate, bona fide Hollywood superstar but that is not the reason he is in shades right now,” host Craig Melvin laughed as he introduced the quartet. The “High School Musical” actor then apologized for his appearance.“No, I’m sorry, man,” Efron, 36, told Melvin, 44.
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large And then there were four. Season 10 of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” airs this Wednesday with finalists Donut (Group C champion), Sea Queen (Group B winner), Cow (Group A victor) and Group A “Ding Dong Keep It On” recipient Gazelle.
EXCLUSIVE: Sandbox Films (Fire of Love) and XTR (Ascension) have teamed to produce feature doc A Life Illuminated, exploring the life and legacy of pioneering marine biologist Edie Widder, in association with ocean exploration nonprofit OceanX.
A husband and wife found dead in a quiet village were shot, police have confirmed.
Queen Of Katwe review by Paul Heath, TIFF ’16.Disney rehashes the Cool Runnings formula with this family-friendly real-life tale of one young girl’s willingness to succeed in the world of competitive chess playing.This biographical tale from director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair), follows Ugandan slum-dweller Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwaga) who stumbles upon Robert Katende’s (David Oyelowo) chess school. Initially bullied for her personal hygiene, Phiina sticks it out and slowly learns the skill of the great game from Katende and his group of underprivileged children.
Zac Efron opened up in a confessional new interview.
Zac Efron was two movies deep into the Disney Channel’s “High School Musical” franchise, in which he played singing, dancing basketball phenom Troy Bolton. He’d been the swoony romantic lead in the movie musical “Hairspray,” opposite John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer, was shortly to play opposite Matthew Perry in “17 Again,” and had pulled his T-shirt up on the cover of Rolling Stone under the headline “The New American Heartthrob.” At 21, Efron might have seemed like the kind of actor who was as likely to watch footage of the moon landing and decide to become an astronaut as he was to take inspiration from Mickey Rourke’s grizzled, broken-down performance. And yet.
Considering the foothold it has in American pop culture, it’s somewhat surprising that there have been so few movies about pro wrestling. In fact, over the last 15 years, the only real notable narrative films on the subject are Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 drama “The Wrestler” and the solid, but already forgotten 2018 dramedy “Fighting With My Family.” The last 12 months have been something of a sea change, comparably, with Roger Ross Williams’ superb “Cassandro” about famed exótico lucha libre wrestler Saúl Armendáriz and now, Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw,” a spotlight on the Von Erichs, one of the most respected and snakebit families in the sport.
Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White were joined by some wrestling legends at the L.A. premiere of their new indie movie The Iron Claw!
Matthew Perry on Monday while receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Efron, 36, and Perry, who unexpectedly died in October, starred together in 2009’s “17 Again.” It was one of Efron’s first films outside of Disney’s “High School Musical.” “I want to mention someone that’s not here today, and that’s Matthew Perry, who was so kind and generous with me when we worked on ’17 Again,'” Efron said during his star ceremony. “Collaborating with him — it was so much fun and it really did propel me and motivate me in so many ways.
Zac Efron is being honored!
Tucker Carlson announced Saturday that he’s launching a news subscription site, TuckerCarlson.com, where subscribers can gain access to exclusive content.
Dennis Harvey Film Critic Palestinian refugees have been arriving in the slum district of Sabra and Shalila on the outskirts of Beirut since what Israel calls the War of Independence in 1948. Forty-four years later, their presence (and that of suspected PLO fighters) got targeted in a mid-September massacre by the Christian militia known as Lebanese Forces, executed while Israeli Defense Forces who’d already invaded the nation three months prior stood by. Another four decades have passed since, during which span the area has remained not just a last-resort magnet for multinational refugees, but “the most lawless, poorest, dirtiest place” in the city.