Oscars 2024: No One Is Mentioning The Biggest Snub Of The Year
A24 cleaned house at the 95th Academy Awards thanks to "Everything Everywhere All at Once" winning many major awards, including best picture. The entertainment company is getting some love at this year's ceremony thanks to five nominations for "The Zone of Interest" and two nominations for "Past Lives." However, there's one unnominated A24 film from 2023 that deserved at least some recognition. Zac Efron's performance in "The Iron Claw" as Kevin Von Erich is one of the best of the year and ranks right up there with Cillian Murphy in "Oppenheimer" and Jeffrey Wright in "American Fiction."
"The Iron Claw" is based on the tragic true story of the Von Erich family, a wrestling dynasty that was seemingly cursed with one death after the next. Holding it down throughout this turbulent, emotional roller coaster is Kevin, who juggles familial expectations with a budding marriage, often getting passed over for opportunities so that his brothers can have a shot at greatness. It's not the flashiest performance, and Zac Efron doesn't necessarily have a filmography that screams "future Oscar contender." Ultimately, it's impossible not to feel his pain and sadness in this work, and it's a shame Efron hasn't gotten more recognition this awards season.
Every year, publications offer their takes on who was snubbed. This time around, outlets like Deadline and The Los Angeles Times naturally mention how Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie should've been nominated for best director and best actress, respectively, for their work in "Barbie." However, they don't mention Zac Efron for "Iron Claw," and that's how it is across the board. So Efron's getting snubbed yet again in this kind of coverage even though his performance ranks among the best of the year.
Zac Efron in The Iron Claw encapsulates the damage toxic masculinity can cause
Kevin Von Erich is the lynchpin of "Iron Claw." All of the film's themes come forward in him, which are exhibited phenomenally through Zac Efron.
Toward the beginning of the film, Kevin goes on a date with Pam (Lily James), where he talks about just wanting to be with his brothers. He has aspirations in the wrestling world, but ultimately, he just wants to be his family. It sets up everything to come, as one by one, Kevin begins losing his brothers to various tragedies. And all the while, he's not really allowed to have a reaction.
Kevin grows up under the guidance of his father, Fritz (Holt McCallany). In a particularly poignant moment before the family leaves for a funeral, Fritz tells his sons not to cry. His ideology is clear — men aren't allowed to have emotions. It's a central tenet in many discussions of toxic masculinity, and Kevin is nothing if not abiding, at least at first. As the movie goes on, Kevin becomes a shell of a man, and we know from his previous conversation with Pam that his brothers' deaths really are affecting him because all he wanted was to wrestle with them. At first glance, it seems there's not a ton of emotion in Efron's performance, but that's the point. He's an emotional being who can't show emotion. Yet through the film, Efron infuses the work with a palpable pain that's genuinely impressive and shows what he's capable of as a performer.
Zac Efron exemplifies a journey to embracing sadness
Playing a character who doesn't want to outwardly express emotion for fear of upsetting his father could've been a recipe for disaster. Zac Efron easily could've phoned in a performance where he doesn't do much because that would've been the point. Instead, Efron brings subtle sadness, and as the film progresses, his pain gradually surfaces until he breaks free of his father's iron claw.
Efron isn't merely a statue throughout the snubbed film. There are shades of his pain and disillusionment where we see how his inability to properly process his brothers' death impacts his relationship with Pam, as he grows distant from her. As is so often the case with suppressing emotions, it comes out in violent manners, as seen when Kevin holds Ric Flair (Aaron Dean Eisenberg) in a hold for too long or when he strangles his father upon Kerry's (Jeremy Allen White) death. But there's a progression to such outbursts. Efron doesn't go from zero to 100 in a second. We see him try to hold it together until the ending of "The Iron Claw," when his sons say how it's okay for him to cry. And he does. You'd have to be made of iron not to shed a tear in that moment when Kevin's formed a new family, one that avoids the trappings of the past.
Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich has all the hallmarks of an Oscar-nominated performance. He's playing a real person, which tends to be highly favored, and there's even a physical transformation with Efron's chiseled physique worthy of a wrestler. However, it seems Efron's more subdued performance went largely overlooked, which is par the course when it comes to the performances that typically earn Oscar love.
The Academy Awards tend to honor the most acting instead of best acting
When watching a movie with Oscar aspirations, it's easy to pinpoint the acting moment that'll play at the ceremony to announce the nominees. These are generally huge, bring-down-the-house moments where a performer yells, weeps, or launches into a topical monologue. They're big moments where someone watching goes, "Now that's acting!" One can see this in this year's crop of acting nominees, like Bradley Cooper's bravado conducting sequence in "Maestro." That's not a dig at Cooper, as it's excellent, but Zac Efron does something different in "The Iron Claw" that the Oscar voting body usually doesn't go for.
Zac Efron embodies the suffering of losing the people he was closest to. That's a kind of heartbreak few could understand. On top of it, he's required to suppress those feelings due to the patriarchal oversight of his father. That's likely the reason Efron was overlooked, as his performance is largely subdued. There are more nuanced layers to this role beyond getting into shouting matches with other characters, but that only makes it more affecting.
Perhaps the Academy overlooking Efron is to be expected. Unfortunately, outlets like The Washington Post and IndieWire failing to mention Efron on their snub lists is a bit more disconcerting. If nothing else, Oscar nominations and discussions of who was snubbed can help lead the general public into seeking out what movies to check out. "The Iron Claw" has been largely shut out of these conversations, which is a shame because it's genuinely one of the best movies of 2023.
Consider this your message to go see "The Iron Claw" if you haven't already. Zac Efron gives the performance of a lifetime, and it deserves far more acclaim than it's gotten.