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Credit: THE FIGHT GAME: (Left to right) Bas Rutten (playing himself), Ryan Bader (as Mark Coleman), Dwayne Johnson (as Mark Kerr), and Emily Blunt (as Dawn Staples) star in The Smashing Machine, screening in local theaters.<\/p>\nCredit: THE FIGHT GAME: (Left to right) Bas Rutten (playing himself), Ryan Bader (as Mark Coleman), Dwayne Johnson (as Mark Kerr), and Emily Blunt (as Dawn Staples) star in The Smashing Machine, screening in local theaters.<\/p>\n
Writer-director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time) helms this biopic about pioneering mixed-martial arts and two-time UFC champion Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson). (123 min.)<\/p>\n
The Smashing Machine Glen: \u201cHuman cockfighting\u201d was the pejorative du jour used to criticize the mixed martial arts (MMA) fights of the 1990s, and this gritty biopic does nothing to soften that perception. What these guys do to each other is ghastly, but Safdie\u2019s script goes a long way in helping us understand who guys like Kerr and his bestie, Mark Coleman (played with surprising nuance by real life MMA fighter Ryan Bader), are and what drives them to compete. Kerr is portrayed as a gentle giant, and Johnson disappears into the character under some facial prosthetics, but there\u2019s no mistaking Johnson\u2019s imposing physicality. The dude\u2019s a straight-up monster. The film also dives into the often-rocky relationship between Kerr\u2019s girlfriend and later wife, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). The film also stars former MMA fighter Bas Rutten as himself. Like Darren Aronofsky\u2019s 2008 Mickey Rourke film, The Wrestler, Safdie takes us behind the scenes of a very unseemly form of \u201centertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna: Admittedly, this sport just isn\u2019t my scene, but it\u2019s always interesting to get into the heads of people who do things that I would never do and find the common threads of humanity. Kerr had a rocky road; his relationship with Dawn was hot and cold and he found himself in the throes of addiction to opiates. It nearly took the giant down, but once he was able to get sober, he faced all new battles. Would he be able to win back his audience? Would he be able to live with Dawn whose temper and new sense of adrift-ness from being Kerr\u2019s caretaker were exploding all over? The guy Johnson is portraying seems genuinely sweet, and I loved the friendship portrayed between Kerr and Coleman, another fighter and a constant life raft for Kerr. I don\u2019t necessarily like to watch the fighting, but Safdie\u2019s tale is mostly about the humans and their lives outside of the ring.<\/p>\n Glen: Ultimately, Kerr\u2019s story is a sad one. We do see at the end he\u2019s alive and well and living in Arizona. The good news is he\u2019s a survivor, but there\u2019s no sense of triumph. This story is based on the 2002 HBO documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr. One thing the documentary got into that this drama only nods to is how the MMA rules were changed due to Kerr\u2019s ability to end fights quickly with his signature weapons (headbutts and knees to the head of grounded opponents). Fight organizers wanted the fights to last longer for TV audiences. In 2019, Kerr started a GoFundMe page, revealing he was battling peripheral neuropathy. I\u2019m not sure there are any winners in sports like MMA and\/or boxing.<\/p>\n Anna: I agree. You would think with the amount of evidence we have about the devastation of chronic traumatic encephalopathy that many of these sports would lose both participants and viewers, but they seem more popular than ever. The prize for the big fight that Kerr is preparing for in the film is $200,000, and the film lets us know that now fighters can make millions from fights. Hopefully the success of this film and the fame of Dwayne Johnson will trickle its way down to the real people portrayed in The Smashing Machine. At least it got their story out there to people like me who know nothing of this world or those in it.<\/p>\n New Times Arts Editor Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Sun Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it rated? R
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What\u2019s it worth, Anna? Full price
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What\u2019s it worth, Glen? Full price
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Where\u2019s it showing? Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria<\/a>, Movies Lompoc<\/a>, Regal Edwards Arroyo Grande<\/a>, Fair Oaks Theatre<\/a><\/p>\n