By George & Josh Bate
After Red One, Black Adam, Red Notice, and a slew of other misfires, Dwayne Johnson desperately needed a more serious, complex role in a more polished film to breathe new life into his acting career. Enter The Smashing Machine, the solo writing and directing debut of Benny Safdie that affords Johnson the platform to deliver a career best, awards-worthy performance.
Based on a 2002 HBO documentary of the same name, The Smashing Machine follows three years in the life of Mark Kerr, a wrestler-turned-mixed martial artist. As Kerr pioneers MMA in the early days of the sport, the film chronicles his struggles with substance use, his partner Dawn (Emily Blunt), best friend Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), and facing loss for the first time in his fighting career.
It’s clear in the early minutes of The Smashing Machine that the new A24 release is helmed by one of the filmmakers behind Uncut Gems and Good Time. Shot predominantly on 16mm, with sprinkles of 70mm film and even VHS cameras throughout, Safdie crafts a distinctly raw, documentary-like sports drama filled with handheld shots, zoom-ins, and uneven tracking of characters in exterior locations while the camera is situated inside an interior location. There’s a purposeful naturalism to Safdie’s filmmaking, which makes the based-on-a-true story feel all the more real and positions the audience as a fly-on-the-wall for some of our lead character’s darkest and most intimate moments. Safdie gives long (often too long) preludes to his scenes, often tracking his characters walking or completing routine tasks before the scene gets into its more meaty material. This contributes to the realness of the story, but also shines a light on the film’s slow pacing and need for a tighter edit. The fights, meanwhile, pack a hefty punch. Safdie opts against overly stylizing his fights. Rather, he retains the groundedness of his filmmaking for less showy fight sequences that, through committed performances and excellent sound design, are injected with much-needed energy.
The raw filmmaking amplifies the immersive qualities of an already extraordinary performance from Dwayne Johnson. Although he laid the groundwork for wrestlers to make the transition into actors, Johnson has seen the likes of Dave Bautista and John Cena overtake him in cinematic credibility with more nuanced, dramatic portrayals in projects like Dune and Peacemaker respectively. In The Smashing Machine, Johnson punches back against naysayers with a performance unlike any he has delivered before. Backed with make-up and prosthetics, Johnson truly transforms into Mark Kerr and is so effective in the role that it becomes remarkably easy to forget entirely that you’re watching The Rock, something that arguably can’t be said for any of the other films in his filmography.
Johnson excels in playing a mild-mannered man, whose outward soft-spokeness juxtaposes the brutality and relentlessness he brings to every fight. He never goes loud or showy with his performance, instead capturing the subtleties of Kerr’s vulnerabilities through nuanced facial expressions, body language, and slight changes in intonation alone. The greatest aspect of Johnson’s performance is his ability to capture an experience all too familiar to men, especially those in professions perceived as more masculine, like fighting; that is, throughout the film, Johnson nails the portrayal of a man, who, like many men, expertly mask their insecurities and vulnerabilities with politeness, niceness, and reservedness. There are so many moments that Johnson conveys deep anguish hiding deep underneath a facade of composure and power – moments that elevate Johnson’s performance from excellent to awards-worthy.
With Johnson’s performance as its centerpiece, The Smashing Machine becomes most interesting through its exploration of the two integral relationships in Kerr’s life. First, foremost, and most overt of these relationships is that with his partner Dawn, played by Academy Award nominee Emily Blunt. Johnson reteams with his Jungle Cruise co-star for a decidedly different adventure this time around, one that demands a lot of heavy dramatic acting from Blunt. The Oppenheimer star, who now collaborates with Benny Safdie behind the camera rather than in front of the camera, shares intimate chemistry with Johnson and deftly sells the authenticity of their relationship to the audience. Although much of her best scenes are ones in which she is arguing with Johnson’s character, Blunt manages to bring emotional depth to moments that, in less capable hands, could have played like senseless screaming matches.
Perhaps most surprising, however, regarding performances is that of Ryan Bader, who plays Kerr’s best friend, trainer, and eventual competitor Mark Coleman. For those unfamiliar, Bader is a real life MMA fighter and, as such, brings a profound realism to his portrayal as Coleman. In an effort to create a raw, organic story, Safdie proves unafraid to, once again, cast non-actors in pivotal roles (just like how he and his brother Josh did in casting Kevin Durant in Uncut Gems). With Bader though, the role is more substantial and integral to our lead’s arc. Arguably the most gut-wrenching scene in the film involves Bader and Johnson sitting around a hospital bed after Johnson’s Kerr has had a medical emergency. While Johnson excels in barely holding all of his emotions together, Bader portrays unconditional love and friendship, through the prism of traditional masculinity, exceptionally well. Whereas Kerr’s bond with Dawn tells an effective, yet more routine tale of a tumultuous romantic relationship, it’s with his undying brotherhood with Bader’s Coleman that The Smashing Machine finds its heart.
Uniting Kerr’s personal journey and his relationships with Dawn and Coleman is a sense of loss and dissatisfaction. Unlike most sports dramas, which chronicle an underdog’s rise to success, Safdie engineers an inversion of the genre here. In a multitude of ways, the film is a lesson in accepting defeat as we watch a man who starts at the top of the world in the beginning of the story only to stumble and face a myriad of obstacles until the end. It’s a subversive direction for a sports film to take, but also one that leaves the film feeling somewhat anticlimactic and unsatisfying. However, that may be exactly what Safdie hopes to evoke in his audience come the end of the film. Kerr’s story is not Rocky Balboa’s story – it doesn’t end with a massive, resounding victory and a happy ever after ending. And, as such, neither does the film.
VERDICT: 7/10
Dwayne Johnson delivers the most serious, sophisticated, and complex performance of his career in The Smashing Machine. The solo writing and directing debut of Benny Safdie retains the raw, real, and documentary-like filmmaking style of he and his brother Josh’s previous efforts, which makes this based-on-a-true story feel all the more authentic and positions the audience as a fly-on-the-wall for some of our lead character’s darkest and most intimate moments. Although attempts to achieve a more authentic, grounded feel render fight scenes a bit static and highlight the need for some trimming of overly long scenes, Safdie’s filmmaking amplifies Johnson’s rich, nuanced performance, which is elevated from excellent to awards-worthy in scenes in which Johnson masks his insecurities with politeness. Emily Blunt matches Johnson toe-to-toe with a strong performance that adds depth to what, in less capable hands, could be reduced to various shouting matches. But it’s real-life MMA fighter Ryan Bader who most surprises with a brilliant, organic acting debut. With The Smashing Machine, Safdie inverts the sports drama, telling a tale about accepting defeat rather than achieving victory. As such, the film ends in somewhat anticlimactic and unsatisfying fashion, but that seems to be exactly what Safdie was going for. Mark Kerr’s story is not Rocky Balboa’s story – it doesn’t end with a resounding victory. And, as such, neither does the film.