Film Review: The Smashing Machine

The Smashing Machine
Director: Benny Safdie
A24, Out for the Count, Seven Bucks Productions
In Theaters: 10.03.25

Benny Safdie loves to save careers. Before he and his brother, Josh Safdie, cast Robert Pattinson in Good Time, he was a joke in the industry — a short-lived Harry Potter star turned vampire heartthrob whose career was headed for the B-list. But look at R-Patts now! He’s Batman! As for Adam Sandler… Well, in spite of the greatness of his performance in Uncut Gems, Sandler doesn’t want to be saved, especially if he’s offered a little payola.

With his solo debut, The Smashing Machine, a film chronicling the struggles of UFC fighter Mark Kerr, Safdie intends to save Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s (Black Adam, Moana) career. Yes, Johnson is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, but think about his filmography. With critical duds and low audience reception, the fucker can sell seats, but he can’t make the ticket worth more than a chuckle. His bank account certainly doesn’t need saving, but maybe that legacy of his does.

Johnson’s performance, while not as redefining as Pattinson’s in Good Time, has broken The Rock’s typecast shell. Johnson makes Mark Kerr charming, in spite of his intimidating monster-man presence, because he is so gentle. A scene comes to mind in which the goliath who barely fits in his airplane seat patiently and courteously asks the man next to him, “Please open the shade. I’d like to see the sunset.” That’s a line that’s pretty hard to deliver without dominating the other actor with masculinity, especially with how grotesque Johnson’s physique is in this film.

I feel, however, that Emily Blunt’s (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place) performance as Kerr’s girlfriend, Dawn, is fairly standard and unsurprising, as I’ve always felt of Blunt. There’s a particularly poor debut performance from Ryan Bader, who plays Kerr’s best friend and competitor, Mark Coleman. Bader is an actual MMA fighter, so while he’s a good monster man, he doesn’t nail the candid gentleness of Coleman and is generally pretty stiff.

Safdie captures Kerr’s life in a simple but effective way. It’s shot like a home movie: from a great distance and on grainy 16mm film, we (almost voyeuristically) watch Kerr and his girlfriend argue about what kind of milk goes in his morning smoothie or go to the fair, where Kerr refuses to get on a ride because it’ll upset his “tummy.”

If there’s anything Safdie has been consistent with across his films, it’s his soundtracks. Devoid of energy, the original score by Nala Sinephro features a quiet, reflective saxophone. It’s meditative and peaceful. Drums freestyle as Kerr fights his competitors, all leading to climactic thuds.

Though it often subverts your expectations of a sports film, especially with what you’d expect from The Rock, ultimately and unfortunately, The Smashing Machine devolves into a textbook sports picture as it nears its conclusion. It becomes montage-heavy and eases up on the central and complex relationship between Kerr and Dawn. It becomes Rocky, except it’s missing that climactic bedroom scene. It leaves that central relationship unresolved and forces its conclusion into its closing title cards, which is never how a biopic should end.That said, Safdie’s first solo feature is good, but if you’re expecting something that reinvents the sports genre like he’s done with thrillers, you won’t enjoy it. It is a solid, entertaining, well-written, well-acted sports film, and it’s worth seeing at least once, to witness what is (hopefully) a new beginning for Dwayne Johnson. —B. Allan Johnson

Read more film reviews by B. Allan Johnson:
Film Review: Cheese Bait
Film Review: Friendship