The Smashing Machine <\/p>\n
\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d8 \ue9d7 <\/p>\n
Director: Benny Safdie <\/p>\n
Cert: 15A<\/p>\n
Genre: Sports<\/p>\n
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk <\/p>\n
Running Time: 2 hrs 3 mins<\/p>\n
Benny Safdie\u2019s<\/a> solo directorial debut, a bruising, subdued character study based on the life of the 1990s mixed martial arts (MMA) pioneer Mark Kerr, is not so much a sports movie as an anti-sports one.<\/p>\n It eschews the punch-the-air moments that define the genre for quiet implosion, unhappy domesticity and total burnout. It\u2019s a story about the other guys: the ones who don\u2019t become brand ambassadors.<\/p>\n Dwayne \u2018The Rock\u2019 Johnson<\/a>, trading blockbuster bombast for bruised vulnerability, has seldom been better as he channels Kerr\u2019s rise and fall during the early, uncertain years of UFC<\/a> mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n Nearly unrecognisable beneath Kazu Hiro\u2019s impressive prosthetics, the actor gives a carefully calibrated, contemplative performance. His hulking frame remains, but the charisma that made him a franchise star is dialled down, replaced with a haunted, caught-in-the-headlights detachment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a subtle portrait of a man addicted not to opioids but to victory, and an unhealthy romantic attachment. When he finally loses, both in the ring and in life, it\u2019s almost a release. <\/p>\n Safdie stages the fights with documentary restraint, avoiding the visceral glamour and stylish flourishes that define movies ringside. The real brutality is interior and familial.<\/p>\n