Got to the theater today to see this. Other than the Von Erich name, I knew nothing about them before and have avoided reading anything once I saw that the movie was well received and I wanted to see it. What a downer. I thought it was a good movie, but just a tough story. It seemed driven by the father's failures and it sucks that he took it out on his kids. Fucking Uncle Rico over there. Not something I'm going to fire up in the future, but glad I saw it.
Mitch's spoiler worked for me, but I can definitely see a counter argument. I groaned when it started, but they made it work IMO.
The cast was real good overall:
- Efron was real good. Didn't know he had it in him. Hope he keeps down this path in the future and now that he showed he can do it, I hope he can keep getting offers.
- I like Jeremy Allen White, but he seemed a bit miscast. He didn't work for me.
- Harris Dickinson is really interesting. I thought he was well cast and really great. I bought him as a wrestler and as a promoter in that world, which is impressive as a Brit. He was really good in See How They Run and Triangle of Sadness last year as well. I saw that his next role is as co-lead with Saorsie Ronan in the next Steve McQueen movie. He should be a star for a while.
- Really glad to see Holt HcCallany get a good role. He's really good when given the chance and was a good mix of patriarch and asshole. Really good job by him.
- The women were less drawn, but if you show me a man between 40 and 55 that doesn't love Maura Tierney, I'll show you a goddamn liar and I am 100% in the bag for Lily James. Always love to see them working.