The Iron Claw

[00:00:00] What you want, when you want it, where you want it, this is the mesh.

[00:00:08] Footcandal Films.

[00:00:13] Film news and reviews from two guys who really like movies.

[00:00:18] This episode is brought to you by the Footcandal Film Society.

[00:00:22] For a schedule of upcoming screenings and membership information, going to be reviewing and discussing the film the Iron Claw, which is the latest A24 production starring Zach Efron directed by Sean Durkin. We're going to be discussing that film here in just a minute. I also very curious to hear thoughts and opinions on this film. But we are also going to do some other things in this episode. We're going to talk a little bit about some movie news in terms

[00:01:43] of upcoming productions we're curious about and going to tease a little bit. If we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing had ever heard us. I believed it. We all did. Morning. Pants tomorrow please David. Carrie, I want you to join your brothers in the ring. Yes sir. I love it.

[00:03:00] Whoo!

[00:03:01] Now we all know, Carrie's my favorite, then Kev, then David, then Mike.

[00:03:05] But the rankings can always change. may have discussed both Martha and Marcy May Marlene, I think I recommended it at one point, and he made a film with Jude Law called The Nest, which was a little bit more recent. I never saw that. Both films, both of those films talk about family dynamics. Martha Marcy May Marlene has kind of a cult that happens when someone gets away from that and tries

[00:04:21] to return to her family life. And the challenges with that, The Nest really complicated, but lot here to admire. It's a this is a movie that it doesn't survive for me on it's as much of its story because the story is pretty simple. This is a this is a film that relies on everything else going on around the story itself. I

[00:05:42] think the look and feel of the film. I think mother too. I mean, the mother plays an interesting role here as well. I just found the story interesting. I found it heartbreaking. I found it. I found the performances all really, really strong through this film. I loved the look and feel of this film. Yeah, I'm a fan of it. I'm very, very happy with this film. Chris, please don't

[00:07:04] ruin my Christmas wish here and tell me that you did not like this film. performance, you have to buy his performance as the domineering father. I totally bought it and yeah. I think, you know, we mentioned the brothers. I think it's kind of unfair to one of the brothers. Zach Efron plays Kevin and Jeremy Allen Wright plays Carrie. So right there you have these two

[00:08:22] of the brothers, you're like, okay, you know good to, I like him so much as an actor. I like everything I've seen him do. I don't feel like, I don't feel like he got to flex his muscles quite as much in this film outside of what we've typically, I've typically seen him do. I don't feel like his character was that much different than what I've seen him be in the bear and other things.

[00:09:44] So, but he was still good.

[00:09:45] It's just, I don't feel like the flex was there

[00:09:47] as much as what I saw with Zach Gaffron. Do you want to hear something kind of even, it says nothing. This is not in the film. Okay. But after watching this film, I had to read up more about this family in the story. What's true, what's false? Do you know there was actually another brother that's not even in the film? Wow. That also had a very similar fate to some of the other ones. Wow.

[00:11:00] And I mean, there's a lot of people online wondering why not include that one because

[00:11:03] he was also somewhat famous.

[00:11:06] He was a wrestler.

[00:11:07] He was known for a while. kind of dark, it was always very rare. Did you get like bright sunlight or things like that? There's a moment toward the end of the film that was kind of an interesting way to kind of have one's character's arc kind of wrap up. It was interesting that I won't spoil, but that was an interesting, very unusual little piece there. But I remember one part in the film,

[00:12:21] I'm a big fan of the band, Rush.

[00:12:24] I was excited when they used Tom Sawyer as walk-on music what that means is I'm watching this movie. I'm like, okay, I know a funeral is coming. And I've spending too much of my energy in the film saying, who's it going to be? And that should not be happening when watching a movie. So that is now a reason why I'm still trying to be very tepid about my enjoyment of trailers because I don't like going into films with any

[00:13:41] kind of preconceived notions of what's going to to it and just, I don't know, it was great. And then those sequences in the ring were really well done and they were entertaining and it was just, I loved all the backstage stuff too, as you know, they're talking about what they're going to do, they're going to show and how they're going to put on this move. And you do get the athleticism out of it. Oh yeah. There are moments where something happens in the

[00:15:04] ring that was not planned and not expected and you're seeing how it affects them as a worked. I mean, and there was also, I mean, yeah, you mentioned there's one moment that I will say has a bit of a fantastical element to it. That's not the ending scene. That's close to the ending, but that's not quite it. And at first when that was happening, it kind of pulled me out of the film a little bit,

[00:16:20] but then as the scene played out, I'm like,

[00:16:22] no, I'm good, this was good.

[00:16:24] This was the right thing to show.

[00:16:25] Did it get a little dusty?

[00:16:26] It did, absolutely, and I would imagine probably would be online. Maybe January, February, I would imagine for people if they want to see it then.

[00:17:41] Okay, Chris, we're gonna take a quick break.

[00:17:43] When we come back, I think you've got a recommendation

[00:17:46] to share.

[00:17:47] I've got a movie, upcoming movie. reading about new films that are coming out. I love the backstories of production, finding out who's involved with these films, finding interesting gems to explore. I don't know if this one falls clearly in that category of gem, we will wait and see. But I do like it when I hear or see an actor, especially one that's traditionally a comedic actor,

[00:19:03] writing and directing their own film.

[00:19:05] And then in this case, also starring in it.

[00:19:07] We talked about Bradley Cooper and Maestro last week, a film that he is starring in. It is gonna be a film that's gonna be landing on Hulu on January 12th. But it is also gonna be released in theaters, at least for a few days beforehand. Interesting. Yep, the film's name is Self-Reliance. Here's the premise of the film. It is Tommy, who's played by Johnson,

[00:20:21] a man who's offered $1 million to play a game

[00:20:24] in which he must outwit hunters as they attempt to kill him. see the trailer. Just because I think this has got potential to be a fun movie. And again, I like Jake Johnson a lot. So, want to see what he can do behind the camera as well. So, here we go. This is the trailer for Self-Reliance coming to Hulu in January.

[00:23:00] Hi. Are you the actor Andy Samberg? I am. why he's in the film. Yeah, I mean, I think it looks great. And the thing the trailer makes you worry about is A, you've seen too much of the film, but B, can the premise hold? Because it is kind of a really high concept, like kind of odd premise, you're like,

[00:23:02] okay, but can they sustain that for the running time

[00:23:05] of the film and have it work with the mechanics Hulu on January 12th. All right, Chris, that is one coming out about three weeks from where we're recording this. Sure. What is a film that is available now that if people wanted to watch that you would recommend that they check out? Chris's patent recommendation. Right. Yes. I'm going to recommend a film called Your Lucky Day. It is by Dan Brown.

[00:24:21] It is his directorial debut.

[00:24:23] Wait a minute. Dan Brown.

[00:24:25] Not the writer that did it by Dan Brown.

[00:24:26] Not the DaVinci Code. I wasn't shrugging my shoulders like, oh, of course that happens because it needs to move the plot forward. No, it all, you know, was flowing really well, which is pretty impressive for it to be his first directorial debut, you know, your lucky day. Not a lot of well-known names in it, so it is a very independent film. The one name that I actually did not recognize

[00:27:01] I thought I wonder if it's that fellow and the more the film with your library card. On Hoopla for free if you're a library user and have a library account with your local library. Yeah, and your library happens to choose to stream that, which they can make choices. Sure. And then you've also got it available online just for rental purchase as well too, right? Yes.

[00:27:02] And it's an amazing, you know, for me it was a pretty cool, directorial debut that I was

[00:27:06] pretty much unaware of. feedback or thoughts or questions about anything we talked about. How can they get ahold of us? You can write us an email at info at footcandal.org. Otherwise you can follow us on Twitter at footcandalfilm. Facebook or on footcandalfilm society. Pretty easy there and Instagram and threads were just simply footcandalfilm. We're also Alan and I are on Letterbox where we try to track what we're seeing

[00:28:22] and leave quick takes and ratings.

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[00:29:26] The Canada National Film Society. Special thanks to Carpal Tuller for the show theme music.

[00:29:29] For more about Carpal Tuller, visit www.carpaltuller.com.

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