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The Smashing Machine is a Different Kind of Fighting Movie

Dwayne Johnson is not allowed to lose. For years it has supposedly been written in his contract on any movie he does -whatever the context. For the sake of his carefully crafted star persona, he must always come out on top. But after years and eventual diminishing returns, he finally gave himself the chance to lose -a couple times- in The Smashing Machine, and it is probably the best work of his movie career thus far.
Allowing underwritten or typecast performers the chance to reinvent themselves may prove to be a specialty of Benny Safdie, who with his brother Josh did something similar for Robert Pattinson on Good Time and Adam Sandler on Uncut Gems. Johnson is not transformed to near the degree they were -The Smashing Machine is a movie in which he plays a professional fighter after all- but that his entrenched celebrity brand is largely lost in the performance is an impressive feat. Yet this film is not just a test of the Rock. Like the Coens before them, the Safdie Brothers have broken up -and moreover each has a new movie out this year. For Benny it is his solo debut.
His subject is the life of former MMA fighter Mark Kerr -in particular the period between 1997 and 2000 when mixed martial arts was just beginning to be mainstreamed and Kerr was a fixture of the Japanese PRIDE Fighting Championship -as previously explored in an acclaimed 2002 documentary of the same name. Johnson plays Kerr, an amateur wrestler by training, balancing the pressure of both his fights themselves -which are markedly more intense and violent than other fighting sports- and his role as a public face of MMA. Simultaneously he contends with his drug dependency and the turbulence it causes to his relationship with his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt).
There are a lot of very generic biopic story beats in there, though one of the modestly more interesting features is that Kerr actually kicks his addictions by the halfway point and the seriousness with which he takes his recovery is what applies added strain to his relationship with Dawn. Kerr himself was to some degree involved with the movie -photos in the credits show him with Johnson, even apparently training him. But to the extent the movie is a work of personal propaganda, it at least reckons with his character faults through to the end with a certain degree of honesty -in particular Kerr's competitiveness and occasional rage issues.
And Johnson is up to the challenge of playing these in a reined-in way, not overzealous as one might expect from a figure who typically goes big on everything. Johnson’s performance is a fascinating thing to behold, as he lets out very few of his customary mannerisms and performance signatures, and lets himself actually embody another character. It isn’t perfect -certainly you notice the fact that Johnson -who is only a couple years younger than Kerr is today- is old for the part of the thirty-something fighter. He’s also not quite as comfortable with the heavy dramatic scenes as Blunt is, but for the most part he does vanish into the role -enough so that when Kerr eventually shaves his head, removing the last disguise for Johnson as it were, he is still believable. Gone is the forced Hollywood charisma in favour of choices that are more naturalistic. And he has definitely put in the effort to match Kerr’s fighting style and relate a sense of vulnerability -both in the ring and out. Again, it is something Johnson hasn’t done in his acting career, and for several of these beats he is genuinely really good -his response after his last fight of the film stands out especially. And he works surprisingly well within the style and tone that Safdie applies to the film.
This in itself is very distinct. As though setting out to make a movie that is the complete opposite of Uncut Gems, Safdie trades in an atmosphere of constant tension for one of soulfulness -still with its moments of dramatic magnitude, but quieter overall, more tender. Safdie adopts a cinema verite approach to the film -frequently he shoots it hand-held and in long takes, such as one that follows a downtrodden Kerr after a fight gone wrong all the way from the ring to the locker room. He edits the film himself in a highly naturalistic manner, emphasizing not the violence in the fights but their choreography, and honing in on the subtleties of character reactions against casual contexts -in which capacity Blunt in particular shines, her turbulent emotional journey treated with the utmost sympathy, repeatedly burying and unleashing a torrent of sadness and frustration emanating in large part from Kerr's choices to keep her at arms' length from his career.
Apart from Blunt and Johnson the cast consists exclusively of non-professional actors, further adding to Safdie's font of realism. Most prominent is MMA fighter Ryan Bader in the role of Mark Coleman, Kerr's best friend, supporter, and potential rival in the PRIDE contest. He does a very apt job for a first-timer, as does perhaps unsurprisingly MMA coach Bas Rutten as himself. Each of the opponents Kerr faces -all real figures from the time- are played by real modern fighters as well; and this of course in conjunction with Johnson's own experience makes the match-ups more believable in execution.
This quality for the film and Safdie's skillful hand, the cool jazz-infused score by Nala Sinephro and other music choices underlining the film and informing its attractive ambient tone go a ways towards keeping The Smashing Machine engaging through its mediocre story beats -which are there, Kerr's arc of the film does largely adhere to formula. Safdie's choice of a softer presentation is distinct and compelling, but it does make for a few moments of dreary stakes and scale -we see a lot of the same few rooms at Kerr's home. He and Dawn and Coleman being the only characters of note, while being a benefit for focus, diminishes the world just a little; we don't ever get a sense of how famous Kerr has become.
The story does however pull its punch effectively in the end -cutting off a climax it seemed to be poised towards quite heavily, and in so doing reinforcing the real weight of the movie's themes. In the midst of this one critical relationship is left in a state of limbo by the narrative, as it had been in real life, and I admire Safdie for not endeavouring to fabricate that. The Smashing Machine -which almost seems like an inappropriate title given the nature of its presentation- is a subtler fighting film than most, one that has a few unique components in its story among others that are exceedingly common; but that is told in an interesting and evocative way by Safdie’s filmmaking and some genuinely impressive performances, Johnson’s not least of all. For maybe the first time, the Rock is nowhere to be seen.

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