THE STORY – The story of legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr.
THE CAST – Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten & Oleksandr Usyk
THE TEAM – Benny Safdie (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 123 Minutes
I’ve never liked fighting. I don’t like violence, I avoid confrontation, and I’ve never watched an actual boxing, wrestling, or MMA match. And yet, I love movies about fighting sports. “Rocky” makes me cry every time. I have no problem with the Oscars that “Million Dollar Baby” won, and “
The Iron Claw” was one of my favorite movies of its year. There’s just something effective about the drama outside the ring being metaphorically exorcised inside the ring. I know I’m not the only sports non-enthusiast who feels this way about these types of movies. They almost always present a captivating way to take inner turmoil or abstract conflict, making it physical, visceral, and wonderfully cinematic. “The Smashing Machine,” the new film from Benny Safdie, is yet another addition to this esteemed subgenre. It may have some serious screenplay hiccups when it comes to characterization. Still, it’s a stirring, invigorating story about overcoming personal demons, with a career-best performance from Dwayne Johnson at its center.
Johnson plays Mark Kerr, the real-life UFC champion. Specifically, the film focuses on his career from 1997 to 2000, a time which saw him battling an addiction to painkillers. Not only is he struggling through an opioid dependency, but he finds himself constantly arguing and going through relationship troubles with his long-term girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt). The film follows Kerr as he works to overcome these distractions and ascend to the top of the heap in the world of professional fighting.
In real life, Johnson has always been eager to please, working to appeal to every possible audience member to be as universally beloved as feasible. In that sense, he and Kerr are alike. As depicted in the film, Kerr is similarly amiable, never allowing a public member to catch him having an off moment. Even in his opening narration, overlaid on top of a scene of him pummeling an opponent until blood is drawn, Kerr stresses that there’s no animosity toward those he fights, even if something animalistic and primal overcomes him in the ring. Johnson portrays Kerr with an appropriate outward gentleness that only proves accurate as judged by the footage of the real-life Kerr that closes the film. This joviality makes the scenes where Kerr is under the hypnotic influence of painkillers even more shocking. Johnson doesn’t overdo it with stereotypical depictions of drug addiction; he’s simply clearly not himself, like a veil has been drawn over him. The life fades from his eyes, and his energy shifts in a disturbing way. Johnson’s performance is further assisted by the subtle yet believable prosthetic work by the Oscar-winning makeup legend Kazu Hiro (“
Darkest Hour,” “
Bombshell”).
The film’s best moment occurs when Kerr is in a hospital after an overdose. He’s visited by his best friend, fellow fighter Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), and he attempts to charm Coleman’s concerns away. But when Coleman breaks through with a simple plea for him to stop doing drugs, Kerr breaks down. There are a few instances of Kerr crying throughout the film, and Johnson makes the wise choice to hide his face – a natural response for a man so clearly trying to brush away others’ concerns constantly. It’s a highly impactful scene that is made all the more moving because of Johnson’s emotional, powerful performance.
Blunt does her very best to portray a character that’s written mercilessly and uncharitably. Dawn is, from the screenplay’s perspective, simply a problem character. Most of Blunt’s screentime is composed of arguments between her and Johnson, often repeating the same fight repeatedly. This may be true to life, and actual tumultuous relationships can certainly be repetitive in their conflicts, but it doesn’t make for compelling storytelling. This dynamic is made even more complicated to watch by how fawningly, lovingly portrayed Kerr is compared to the hurricane of vitriol that is Dawn. Blunt delivers about as good a performance as can be hoped for, given her character’s circumstances. Her American accent is specific and excellently done, and she miraculously manages to find variation in Dawn’s monotonous complaints. It’s a noble performance from the esteemed actress, playing a role that could easily bring the movie down entirely if it were in less capable hands.
The relationship in the film that makes the most impact is actually the friendship between the two Marks: Kerr and Coleman. The aforementioned hospital scene is so powerful not just because of Johnson’s work, but also thanks to Bader’s grounded performance. A real-life MMA fighter himself, this is Bader’s acting debut, which makes his natural on-screen energy, especially when next to one of the biggest movie stars alive, even more impressive. The two Marks are in constant proximity to each other, and their bond of friendship is captured in an extremely true-to-life, loving way.
Although this is Benny’s first film without his brother Josh, none of the trademark Safdie energy is missing. It may not be as hectic a film as, say, “
Uncut Gems,” but the fight scenes are fantastically edited, with crunching sound effects and a claustrophobic camera used to maximize the painful nature of the scraps. And outside of the ring, the film remains well-paced, even when it finds itself mired in yet another verbal dispute between Mark and Dawn (as Kerr says during one of these altercations, “This is so fukking exhausting.”)
“The Smashing Machine” is an extremely flattering portrayal of a fighter who’s shown to be a beast in the ring but gentle off the mat. He’s even shown doing the ultimate act of casual selflessness: putting the grocery cart away after loading up his truck. Johnson, giving the performance of his career, along with excellent work from Blunt and Bader, makes an inconsistent screenplay not only watchable but entertaining and deeply moving.
I wanna see this one.
