They say that life is the best playwright, but this, of course, is nonsense: a high degree of drama is not equivalent to a high degree of dramaturgy, the words “tragic” and “tragic” are not synonymous for a reason. This is demonstrated quite successfully by the film “Full Grit”, which reconstructs the tragic events in the life of the “cursed” Von Erich wrestling dynasty through the efforts of outstanding tragic actors (led by “High School Musicals” star Zac Efron).
Let’s say four wrestler brothers appear on the screen while there are five wrestler brothers in reality. The reason for this, according to director and screenwriter Sean Durkin (She made her debut 13 years ago in the psycho-thriller “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” opposite Elizabeth Olsen and Sarah Paulson, and three years ago released the drama “The Nest,” opposite Jude Law and Carrie Coon.)The movie could not host another tragedy. It’s hard to disagree here: The picture is bursting at the seams, even from those included.
Life can be uncanny, anecdotally harsh, and such material is difficult to adequately translate into a dramatic work: the fact that these events actually occurred is recognized with great difficulty, let alone their presentation on the big screen. Fullmetal is essentially a wrestling remix of Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, minus the (presumably) otherworldly factor and creativity in killing people.
The problem is that the deaths in “Usher” need to be satisfying, and in “Comprehension” you need to sympathize with the grief, and in the latter there are great difficulties, because the grief reaches a completely ridiculous degree at one point. Beyond this point, there is an emotional disconnect from what is happening; This is exacerbated by the strange and crude metaphysical scene positioned closer to the closing credits, but is greatly offset by a truly touching scene at the very end.
On the one hand, it seems that there is nothing to blame Durkin for: he probably did everything he could, it’s just that the story of the von Erichs belongs to a category of gravity beyond the reach of mortals.
“Full Grit,” on the other hand, places a big bet on what’s already in store, so to speak (as well as acting performances, more on those later); Otherwise, it’s a pretty basic movie. brilliant though most obvious metaphor: despotic wrestler father (Holt McCallany from Mindhunter)inventor of the painful “iron claw” technique (the attacker grabs the opponent’s forehead and then squeezes the skull with five fingers simultaneously)he keeps a similar tight grip on the entire family and strangles his own sons one by one.
Obvious triumphs include: Full Steel has assembled a magnificent ensemble of actors who each make a lasting impression on their own and look luxurious together. If everyone gets really shaken up and really fights (the exciting fight scenes were also filmed with a live audience), that’s okay.
Only the lazy did not call the film the best performance of Efron, a Disney alumnus who plays the leading role of his (almost) older brother Kevin von Erich. It is impossible to argue with such a statement: the artist’s farewell dialogue will cause tears in everyone. Jeremy Allen White, star of the kitchen drama “Bear” and “Maleficent”‘s Harris Dickinson, who play younger siblings Kerry and David, seem to not only be behind him, but giving way to him and pushing him to the top (kind of rhymes with the plot of the movie). . Lily James (“Downton Abbey”, “Cinderella”) No comparison to Kevin’s wife Pam. McCallany is so extraordinarily irresistible that you want to strangle him along the way; Maura Tierney (“Lovers”), playing the mother, I want to smother her too, but to a lesser extent.
There may be disagreements about screenwriter Durkin in general, but director Durkin deserves extraordinary praise. At least to make a wrestling drama, that is, a picture of the complete triumph of toxic masculinity where men are allowed to cry openly. The overall result is a pretty technical knockout, but a knockout nonetheless.