Benny Safdie\u2019s The Smashing Machine gives Dwayne Johnson a plum dramatic role that allows him to return to his roots, in a way, after years of grinding away in Hollywood tent poles. Here, the artist formerly known as the Rock plays the gregarious mixed martial arts legend Mark Kerr, who was on the vanguard of the fledgling sport in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
Johnson, of course, understands the mindset of a prized fighter from his days as a WWF icon and, like Kerr, knows the adrenaline rush that comes from performing before a roaring crowd. That isn\u2019t to say that the role comes off as any less of a calculated career move for the star, but Johnson at least appears to be committed to playing a nuanced character for perhaps the first time since his offbeat turn in Michael Bay\u2019s Pain & Gain<\/a> more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n We immediately see Johnson leaning into the intensity of his pro-wrestling days in an opponent-thrashing opening credits montage that depicts Mark\u2019s breakthrough at Brazil\u2019s World Vale Tudo Championship in 1997. Afterwards, the film cuts to Mark in the waiting room of a doctor\u2019s office, as he strikes up a conversation with an elderly woman who notices the bruises on his face. While fruitless in his attempt to convince the horrified woman of the merits of mixed martial arts, he nevertheless wins over her and the grandson who she\u2019s accompanying with his outsized charm, a quality that Johnson has no trouble putting on convincing display.<\/p>\n This scene, as well as many others throughout The Smashing Machine, is recreated verbatim from John Hyams\u2019s 2002 documentary of the same name about Mark. It\u2019s understandable that Safdie, known for the nervy immediacy of his collaborations with his brother Josh Safdie, would want to hew so close to the fly-on-the-wall documentary\u2019s events, especially considering that it abounds in the sort of subtly revealing moments that usually don\u2019t make it into biopics. But despite the retro v\u00e9rit\u00e9 aesthetic that Safdie employs to give Mark\u2019s story a stylish new coat of paint, all that his version ultimately does is whip up a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n The film largely revolves around Mark\u2019s personal struggles, namely his opioid addiction, which stems from him trying to manage long-term pain from injuries suffered in the ring, and the strain it places on his relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). Safdie devises some new sequences around these events, dramatizing the blowout arguments that Kerr and Staples were having behind closed doors. But the melodramatic pitch of these domestic squabbles, which culminate in a suicide attempt, isn\u2019t especially compelling because it\u2019s so calculated to elicit our sympathies. Besides, the tumultuousness of the couple\u2019s codependent relationship hits harder when we simply hear Kerr tearfully recount it in Hyams\u2019s film.<\/p>\n With Safdie so intent on tracing the documentary\u2019s footsteps, including restaging Kerr\u2019s matches in ways that can\u2019t help but pale in comparison to the brutality of the actual fight footage, the film leaves it to Johnson to bring something new and unexpected to its depiction of Kerr. Even under the prosthetics and hair piece, Johnson makes it easy to see how this man with a soft, almost childlike demeanor is always a moment away from exploding in a fit of rage.<\/p>\n Yet the actor is rarely asked to reveal much more of the man behind the enigma, and perhaps as a result, the performance mostly feels as if it\u2019s offering mimicry. In the end, The Smashing Machine seeks to valorize Kerr as a true pioneer of mixed martial arts who was left behind as the UFC achieved mainstream respectability, but it\u2019s hard not to see this retelling as anything other than a means of letting Johnson make a bid for artistic credibility. <\/p>\n Score:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u00a0Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk, Lyndsey Gavin, Ishii Satoshi , James Moontasri, Yoko Hamamura, Stephen Quadros, Jason Tremblay \u00a0Director: Benny Safdie \u00a0Screenwriter: Benny Safdie \u00a0Distributor: A24 \u00a0Running Time: 123 min \u00a0Rating: R \u00a0Year: 2025 Since 2001, we’ve brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we\u2019re committed to keeping our content free and accessible\u2014meaning no paywalls or fees.<\/p>\n If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon<\/a> or making a donation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benny Safdie\u2019s The Smashing Machine gives Dwayne Johnson a plum dramatic role that allows him to return to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-12834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf you can, please consider supporting Slant Magazine.<\/p>\n