The Smashing Machine: A Subdued Character Study

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gives his best performance to date

Making a biopic is always going to be a challenge for a filmmaker. So many have been made in the history of the medium and after a while, they start to all feel the same. The cradle to tomb scale of a biopic, following the highs and lows of an influential person’s life- has been parodied to death. This is why Benny Safdie’s newest film, The Smashing Machine is an admirable effort to break out of the mold. The film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Mark Kerr, a man who is at the top of his game and is one of the leading fighters in MMA fighting. This film chronicles his opioid addictions, struggles in the sport and his toxic relationship with his girlfriend Dawn played by Emily Blunt. This film is in every way a slice of life film, dropping us the viewer into the middle of Mark’s life and expecting us as the audience to catch up on needed context.

To give some context into this review, I am not very familiar with MMA fighting and did not know who Mark Kerr was until watching this film. That makes watching this film feel a little alarming at first- as it doesn’t hold your hand or give you necessary context. I think I was able to get mostly his relationships through the filmmaking, we start the film seeing Mark fight in the ring and then we see the way he lives in the real world. We see the way he signs an autograph for a kid and the way he talks to his girlfriend in appreciation but criticism after she makes him a protein shake with the wrong type of milk. This helps the set dressing to make Kerr look vulnerable and human. The film does a great job of making him a relatable figure worth following, even when he is making awful choices throughout the film.

This movie has incredible individual scenes where everyone is giving wonderful performances. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson shows he’s more than just charisma in this film. He dials back his movie star persona and gives a real and vulnerable performance in the film - he is Oscar worthy here. Emily Blunt as his girlfriend has to play off of his energy in several scenes where they have loud and bombastic fights and she holds her own very well here- these scenes are so hard to watch but handled with care. A standout in the film is Ryan Bader, who is giving his first ever film performance as someone who is a noteworthy MMA fighter himself. He plays Mark Coleman, who is Mark Kerr’s best friend and mentor. His performance here feels very naturalistic and he is the moral grounding of the film - the one character who completely acts in good faith and is there for his friends despite their struggles. The conclusion given to that character was the best part about it and I found his arc to be the most compelling arc of the film.

Overall, this movie is solid. It’s made up of some incredible vignettes that don’t entire equal up to the sum of its part. Benny Safdie’s direction is admirable, the dialogue is compelling and the performances are spectacular, but by the end of the movie I couldn’t help but want more out of the overall experience. You could explain this movie in just a few sentences to someone if you boil it down at it’s most basic parts and the story being told here is very formulaic to other biopics, even if in presentation it feels a little less conventional. There’s even some needle drops in the film that undermine the dramatic tension of some scenes, telling the audience how they are supposed to feel that I couldn’t help but feel like it came across kinda hokey.

There’s not a whole lot more to it. The film feels so aloof because of the context it lacks that the fly on the wall approach maybe wasn’t the best approach here. I couldn’t help but think of Sean Durkin’s excellent sports drama The Iron Claw that came out a few years ago. That movie, above any context about the sport surrounding it, was a story of brotherhood and sacrifice. While The Smashing Machine focuses more on the drama than the sport as well, the dramatic arcs of the characters aren’t nearly as compelling as they are in The Iron Claw, because the movie fails to elaborate their relationships to us from the get go. It’s okay to trust your audience and not have to tell them everything they need to know, but you should still give them the proper context to the emotional building blocks to your movie are effective - which is where this film is lacking in. Overall, it’s a good movie and I was consistently engaged in it, but it won’t be one that makes a lasting impression on me over time.