Few movie stars have curated their persona as carefully as Dwayne Johnson. He is squeaky clean, never going lose a fight, jumping into any commercially viable film that can be reworked primarily around maintaining this image, until now. The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie, follows Johnson as Mark Kerr, a fighter who faced professional and personal struggles throughout the early days of mixed martial arts’ meteoric rise from niche sport to worldwide phenomenon. For the first time in many years, Johnson relinquishes control of his star power, putting it in the hands of a director with a strong vision and allowing himself to disappear into a fully realized character.
Safdie continues his streak of getting lead performances out of movie stars that successfully redefine everything we know and love about them. With Good Time, Robert Pattinson shed the baggage anchored to him by skeptics who could not see him as anything other than the guy from Twilight. With Uncut Gems, Adam Sandler delivered a career-best performance that reminded us of his remarkable dramatic chops. And with The Smashing Machine, it is open-and-shut that Johnson has it in him to completely transform into another person if he can find the right movie.
After previously partnering with his brother, Josh, on their last two films, the Safdies announced an amicable split a few years ago, going off to direct features on their own. A24 has both on the calendar for this year. Benny made his solo directorial debut with The Smashing Machine, and Josh’s Marty Supreme, set in the world of competitive ping-pong and starring Timothee Chalamet, is coming to theaters this Christmas. Safdie spent the last few years dabbling in screen-acting himself, including supporting roles in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Licorice Pizza, and Oppenheimer before circling back to directing. The question, much like the one asked by many fans and critics in the wake of the Coen brothers’ split, is whether the Safdies can sustain their hot streak as filmmakers without the established dynamic that brought them to this point. The answer, at least for Benny, is a resounding yes.
Bucking the anxious style of the past Safdie films, The Smashing Machine is a much more meditative and intimate experience. The engine that keeps this film in motion is empathy. The result is a biopic that underlines the humanity of its subject. Safdie puts the viewer against the ropes as he navigates the euphoric highs and the discomforting lows of Kerr’s life as both a fighter and a domestic partner to Dawn, played by Emily Blunt.
Safdie’s script is packed with deep cut names and faces from the early days of MMA that fanatics will appreciate. But there is very little in terms of inside baseball. The film is smart to not alienate the portion of its audience that will walk in having no knowledge of MMA or combat sports in general. Because like many great sports movies before it, The Smashing Machine is a character piece that uses competition as a way to externalize the interior; the conflicts within Kerr’s self are materialized in the ring.
One of the major conflicts comes in the form of Kerr’s addiction to painkillers. But The Smashing Machine is not an addiction drama, and it is actually very wise— and refreshing— that the film depicts Kerr as someone who is not defined by or implicitly judged for his addiction. It is a struggle that the film approaches with sensitivity, but without feeling overbearing or preachy, as a great deal of biopics that tackle substance abuse issues often have that be the crux of the whole narrative. Johnson plays all of this with an appropriate amount of weight while also balancing the brute physicality of his fight sequences, his tumultuous domestic life, and his incredibly gentle nature. This is the key contradiction within Kerr’s life, a kind and gracious public figure who never feels better than when he is smashing his opponent into oblivion.
Johnson’s self-reflective and tender performance is both an exceptional channelling of Kerr’s real life demeanor and a revelatory avenue for him as an actor. He has never been so vulnerable on screen, setting aside trappings of movie-star ego to appear defeated, breaking down in tears, and losing grip on his relationship. Blunt is granted less interiority but still delivers a moving performance throughout dense and uncomfortable scenes of interpersonal conflict. Despite the major status of both stars, they completely disappear into these roles. It feels exceptionally real when the camera lingers on these moments.
The cinéma vérité quality is innate to how The Smashing Machine was filmed. Safdie and director of photography Maceo Bishop shot the movie mostly on handheld, 16mm film that lends a home-video quality to its most intimate sequences. The footage looks beautiful on the big screen, with soft lights and natural but vivid colors and movements of the camera that place you right there in the story. The sights and sounds of The Smashing Machine elevate it beyond your boilerplate sports-bio, with striking scenes of MMA competition scored by Nala Sinephro, who folds her ambient jazz influences into an ethereal score. The music plays like an immediate reflection of everything going through Kerr’s head, especially when he is getting beat down.
The Smashing Machine is a spectacular addition to the canon of combat sports films, and one that ascends into the Dad Movie Hall of Fame with a training sequence scored to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” But the film offers a much richer and more immersive experience than most sports movies, putting you in a position to understand, in a visceral fashion, the devastation of losing a fight. After the loss, the movie opens its arms to you and lifts you up when you’re down with its measured, emotionally mature examination of how defeat can be fulfilling in its own way. Kerr’s story is all about that flow, the ups and downs of his career, his relationships, and his health, resolving with a profound reminder that even when you reach your apex, true satisfaction can only come from within.
8 out of 10
The Smashing Machine is in theaters now.
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2025.