I’ve been anticipating seeing this movie since I saw something about it on tiktok two nights ago. of the movie. A biopic about a professional wrestling family like the Harts - the Harts were one of those wrestling families, rite?? - I saw some factoid about there being an IRL death omitted from the film, which made me interested for some reason.

I didn't know much else about the story, but on my way to Regal, my friend Sam told me, via DM, about some of the vital aspects of the plot, which ruined it for me. I got mad at him and we had a minor fight. He hadn't even seen the movie, so I don't know why in response to me saying I was seeing the movie, was for him to indulge all this info about it. But it's all good. Little can ruin a Regal Tuesday for me.

The second day of the New Year, and my resolutions fresh in my mind - yes, I always have resolutions - I knew that one of them was to see a movie every week for the entire year. The past year, I have become very fond of Regal's Tuesday deal. So long as you have a FREE!!! membership, you can get movie tickets for 7$ on Tuesdays. It's actually 8$, but if I were to get turnt about every additional pointless fee with every purchase I faced at this point, I would have killed myself in like 2022.

I decided I would see the movie by myself. The J takes you straight to the Essex mall, connected to Regal. Generally I would get trail mix or winterfresh mints for the movie, but I am budgeting. So I made no purchases for the film.

I sat in the second-from-front row, with the big leather reclining seats. I fingerboarded on the little slide-out table while I waited for the movie, an impulsive little thing I like to do. Something to do with quitting smoking, or an oral fixation, or something.

Anyways.

This movie has a body count. That, paired with the early eighties time frame, made me think to the golden era of slasher movies. It is eerie, sometimes reminding me of FOXCATCHER, and the death & dying making me think of, like, FRIDAY THE 13TH.

There was even a scene where that interesting looking fellow from THE BEAR is sitting in a canoe in the middle of a lake, and I was waiting for young Jason Voorhees to appear from the water. That or Cropsey, with his big ass shears.

I was really scared of slasher movies as a kid. I would sleep on the floor of my parent’s bedroom after watching them, as this would prevent a slasher from intruding and getting me.

Z. Efron plays Kevin Von Erich in this thing. He, too, sleeps on the floor at his parent’s house - There is some sort of bad luck curse on his family, in which everyone gets sick, or injured, or dies. He believes in this curse to the point where he thinks at some parts that it's contagious - like to the point where he is afraid to be around his children, for fear that he will spread it to them.

But he isn’t allowed to be scared of anything - or be sad, or cry. He’s the buffest of his four brothers - five if you include Jack, who passed away at age 5 - but I assume he didn’t make incredible gains in that time (the total brother count is actually six if you include the one that wasn’t featured in the film - director Sean Durkin didn’t want Chris in the movie - he found it too depressing to have so many deaths in the movie).

Although Kevin is the most wrestler-looking wrestler in the bunch, he lacks I guess proper stage presence or something to be considered the favorite son. He keeps getting hurt, lies on the ground for too long during the ten-count, and stumbles around promos. His dad, Fritz, a former wrestler from the sixties, I think, puts his bets on next-oldest brother David, instead, predicting he will be the World Champion of the World. In response, Chris dies of some intestinal thing.

Fritz puts his efforts in the next son, and something bad happens to him. Moves to the next, another tragedy happens. I didn't know the timeline going in, so it became a guessing game about who would die next, like it was THE PROWLER or THE BURNING.

It is a true story. It doesn't cover much of the business side of things as much as the family stuff - apparently there was a federation called the NWA, and every time one of the white wrestlers would reference it, it made me laugh.

I don’t have much knowledge on 80’s wrestling, TBH. My wheelhouse is Attitude era and once Steve Austin went heel I found other things to be interested in.

I think I saw the Dark Side of The Ring ep on this, but I don't remember. A global pandemic is one of the only things that can push me to watch VICE docu-series about King Kong Bundy or, hell, listen to Fiona Apple.

Anyways. The movie is depressing. The characters remind me less of like, THE WRESTLER, and more like AMERICAN SNIPER. They feel written by Clint Eastwood, at least. Very one-track-minded, with little other purpose in life. Zac Efron's character is a virgin until he meets his future wife, which is crazy, because he is one hot piece of ass in this mother fucker.

And the only light found here is between Efron and his GF/Wife, played by Lily Allen, who I recognize from something, although upon research I haven’t seen anything with her in it. She is likable, though. They have kids together, and he is torn between being a family man and working for his overbearing father, who doesn't even really like him anyways.

The rest of the cast is great too, specifically Jeremy Allen White, who plays younger brother Kerry. I only know him from random stuff on Tik Tok about THE BEAR, which I have yet to see, and probably won't, but I am aware he is a popular person RN. I haven't watched Shameless either - the people that talk about it are often the same kind of people who think play Cards Against Humanity is funny.

The story itself is sad, but the themes on family units are interesting. There is miscellaneous stuff thrown in about mental health, too, like how none of the sons are allowed to cry at any of the funerals they have to attend. It's 2024, so most thematic stuff in any movie about men is about mental health. The mother character is an interesting study, too, but I'm just a guy, so I don't really know what her problem was.

I recommend. I saw it at Regal Delancey, on a Tuesday, for 8 dollars. I saw it alone, and was depressed after I watched it. And sometimes, that's better than feeling nothing.

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