Holt McCallany – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE WATERFRONT – Review by Susan Granger

June 28, 2025June 29, 2025 Susan Granger crime drama, Holt McCallany, Jake Weary, Kevin Williamson, Maria Bello, netflix, The Waterfront

In The Waterfront, mounting debt caused by “overfished waters, environmental quotas, gas prices” forces the Buckleys, a prominent coastal Havenport ‘fishing’ family, to return to their shady drug-running past. Showrunner Kevin Williamson juggles innumerable instances of Southern gothic deception, betrayal and graphic torture. But there’s little urgency to the soapy plot, the dialogue is stilted, and the superficial characters never really develop beyond first-impressions.

Reviews

THE IRON CLAW – Review by Pam Grady

December 22, 2023December 24, 2023 Pam Grady Championship Wrestling, Fritz Von Erich, Holt McCallany, jeremy allen white, Lily James, Maura Tierney, sean durkin, Stanley Simons, The Iron Claw, zac efron

As a title, The Iron Claw is both literal and a metaphor. It is the signature move of wrestler Fritz Von Erich when he is about to decimate an opponent in the ring. It also symbolizes the tight grip he holds on the sons who have no real choice except to follow him as the next generation of battling Von Erichs. Writer/director Sean Durkin’s first film since 2020’s The Nest is all at once a sports drama, a family’s biopic, and one of the best depictions of the effects of toxic masculinity ever committed to the screen and a haunting evocation of family dysfunction.