{"id":13174,"date":"2025-10-04T11:30:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13174"},"modified":"2025-11-11T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:53:36","slug":"the-smashing-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/10\/04\/the-smashing-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smashing Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Smashing Machine<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language and some drug abuse)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Benny Safdie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Benny Safdie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nala Sinephro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Maceo Bishop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 3, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk, Lyndsey Gavin, Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri, Yoko Hamamura, Stephan Quadros.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The first thing you need to know about the new sports biopic The Smashing Machine<\/strong> is that isn\u2019t a sports biopic. It would be more accurate to call it an anti-biopic with how writer-director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems) adamantly refuses to lean into the usual genre clich\u00e9s. He keeps the audience at arm\u2019s length in telling the story of Mark Kerr, one of first stars of MMA, the full-contact fighting sport then known as UFC.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I would definitely be fair to say former wrestler Dwayne Johnson (once known as The Rock) gives the performance of his career in The Smashing Machine<\/strong> although you can barely recognize him under all that makeup. Granted, that bar isn\u2019t very high, but he shows that he is capable of playing a character with gravitas. He plays Kerr as a man looking to make a name for himself in a sport that hasn\u2019t yet become a household name. He\u2019s a brute in the ring, pounding and pummeling his opponents until they can barely stand. Outside the ring, he\u2019s kind of mess. He\u2019s addicted to painkillers and has sudden mood swings. He also struggles with his relationship with his high-maintenance girlfriend Dawn (Blunt, A Quiet Place) who just wants him to let her in so she can understand him better. He\u2019s not particularly nice to her, but he needs her to take care of him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kerr\u2019s closest relationship is with fellow fighter Mark Coleman (real-life MMA artist Bader), a friend who doesn\u2019t think twice about rushing to his side when he has a medical emergency. They\u2019re buds meaning that them going up against each other in the finale is more or less an inevitability. Safdie rounds out the cast with other MMA figures like Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri, Oleksandr Usyk and Bas Rutten. It gives the film a greater sense of realism. That\u2019s what really distinguishes The Smashing Machine<\/strong> from other sports dramas. It\u2019s dripping with realism, not a single ounce of Hollywood artifice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Safdie, working in perfect harmony with cinematographer Maceo Bishop, takes a verite approach to the material making it feel more like a documentary. The camera follows Kerr around as he makes his way to and from the ring. He takes us into his home, locker rooms and doctor\u2019s office. What\u2019s interesting is how Safdie always shows the action from outside the ring. He never puts the viewer in the thick of the action. That\u2019s what I mean when I said he keeps everybody at arm\u2019s length. Also, it\u2019s a way of constantly reminding us we\u2019re watching a movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Johnson disappears into the role so thoroughly; it\u2019s almost hard to believe it\u2019s the same guy from the Fast & Furious franchise. He\u2019s come a long way since The Scorpion King. Blunt is also good as the somewhat selfish girlfriend who goes out drinking with her friends even though Kerr is struggling with his sobriety. He\u2019s so saint himself. He can be petty, getting on her about small stuff like how to properly make his morning smoothie and how to grow a cactus. The two have some explosive scenes together including one where he reduces a door to splinters. It\u2019s a good pairing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I get what Safdie is going for with lessening the emotional content in The Smashing Machine<\/strong>, but at the same time, it makes it feel less personal. Are we supposed to sympathize with Kerr? Are we supposed to not like Dawn? I don\u2019t know. I felt kind of indifferent towards them both. I wouldn\u2019t exactly say it hurts the movie, but it does leave the viewer wanting a bit more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I admire Safdie as a filmmaker. He\u2019s done some good stuff like two seriously underappreciated gems, Heaven Knows What (2014) and Good Time (2017). He imbues The Smashing Machine <\/strong>with the same palpable grittiness that completely obliterates the flash and dazzle one expects from a sports drama. It\u2019s really more of a character study than anything else. Even better, it\u2019s a character worthy of studying. Kerr might not be a legend, but he\u2019s definitely more than a footnote in the history of MMA.\"\"<\/p>\n

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The Smashing Machine (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language and some drug abuse)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Benny Safdie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Benny Safdie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nala Sinephro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Maceo Bishop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 3, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk, Lyndsey Gavin, Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri, Yoko Hamamura, Stephan Quadros. Rating: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The-Smashing-Machine-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C967&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13177,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13174\/revisions\/13177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}