The hype surrounding The Smashing Machine has been astronomical and for good motive. It’s Benny Safdie’s first solo directorial effort after working together with his brother Josh on acclaimed hits like Good Time and Uncut Gems. Rumors of a large funds make it probably one of the costly movies A24 has ever made because it makes a push for greater movies usually. And it’s Dwayne Johnson’s large Oscar automobile, the field workplace big’s first stab at a very severe function.
To get within the headspace of former UFC fighter Mark Kerr, Johnson has reworked and spoken typically about how tapping into this function introduced him to a weak state he hasn’t but explored in his profession. The massive query out of the movie’s Venice premiere was, does all of it work? The reply isn’t any.
The Smashing Machine Is Too Sedate To Be Thrilling
As a sports biopic, The Smashing Machine is unconventional in some methods. It opts not for an expansive take a look at Kerr’s whole life, however focuses as an alternative on the three years — from 1997 to 2000 — the place habit nearly ruined Kerr’s life and the fighter had an abroad gig in a Japanese league known as Satisfaction. Nonetheless, Safdie, who additionally wrote the script, can’t assist however fall into a number of the style’s trappings, with coaching montages and extra used to middling impact.
To his credit score, Johnson’s efficiency is totally high quality, although it is definitely not revelatory. The thought of casting the world’s most well-known wrestler-turned-actor within the function of Kerr is arguably extra fascinating than the efficiency or the movie itself. That mentioned, it’s Johnson’s greatest function to this point, giving the actor an opportunity to chew into meaty materials that he has in any other case prevented by means of a lot of his profession.
Blunt is within the function of the thankless, underdeveloped love curiosity, however she really shines as Daybreak, Kerr’s eventual spouse. In one of many movie’s home combat scenes (that are extra thrilling than something that takes place within the ring), Daybreak shouts at Mark that he “doesn’t know her.” We don’t actually know her, both — at the very least not on any type of intimate stage past her relationship with the star of the present. Nonetheless, Blunt imbues Daybreak with a way of humanity that makes her stand out, flaws and all.
Safdie’s route provides a layer of intimacy that his script doesn’t, and it definitely evokes previous collaborations together with his brother, however there is a stagnancy to the digicam that offers The Smashing Machine an total lack of vitality, even throughout its most brutal moments. This all builds to an anticlimactic conclusion that, whereas presumably true to actual occasions, nonetheless feels underwhelming.
Beneath all these flaws lies a great movie. It is not that The Smashing Machine is even dangerous. It is simply that it falls so in need of its potential and has a startling lack of vitality for a movie about males beating one another mindless. Its greatest moments aren’t within the octagon — they’re within the quiet moments when Johnson’s Kerr is speaking to an interviewer backstage or when Daybreak and Mark are exchanging barbs in between affections of their cozy Arizona residence.
One of the best sports activities biopics are about overcoming near-insurmountable odds, and Kerr definitely did that point and time once more. Johnson, too, has accomplished the identical, transitioning from a wrestling star to a severe actor. Nevertheless it’s clear that to go additional, he might have higher materials to transcend. On the finish of the day, The Smashing Machine nonetheless reverts to familiarity somewhat than pushing the needle, and it is clear that everybody concerned can do higher.
The Smashing Machine screened on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. A24 will launch the movie in theaters on October 3.
The Smashing Machine
4/10
- Launch Date
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October 3, 2025
- Runtime
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123 minutes
- Director
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Benny Safdie
- Writers
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Benny Safdie
- Producers
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Beau Flynn, David Koplan, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia
