The hype surrounding The Smashing Machine has been astronomical and for good reason. It’s Benny Safdie’s first solo directorial effort after working with his brother Josh on acclaimed hits like Good Time and Uncut Gems. Rumors of a massive budget make it possibly one of the most expensive films A24 has ever made as it makes a push for bigger films in general. And it’s Dwayne Johnson’s big Oscar vehicle, the box office giant’s first stab at a truly serious role.
To get in the headspace of former UFC fighter Mark Kerr, Johnson has transformed and spoken often about how tapping into this role brought him to a vulnerable state he hasn’t yet explored in his career. The big question out of the film’s Venice premiere was, does it all work? The answer is no.
The Smashing Machine Is Too Sedate To Be Thrilling
As a sports biopic, The Smashing Machine is unconventional in some ways. It opts not for an expansive look at Kerr’s entire life, but focuses instead on the three years — from 1997 to 2000 — where addiction almost ruined Kerr’s life and the fighter had an overseas gig in a Japanese league called Pride. Still, Safdie, who also wrote the script, can’t help but fall into some of the genre’s trappings, with training montages and more used to middling effect.
To his credit, Johnson’s performance is absolutely fine, though it’s certainly not revelatory. The idea of casting the world’s most famous wrestler-turned-actor in the role of Kerr is arguably more fascinating than the performance or the film itself. That said, it is Johnson’s best role to date, giving the actor a chance to bite into meaty material that he has otherwise avoided through much of his career.
Blunt is in the role of the thankless, underdeveloped love interest, but she truly shines as Dawn, Kerr’s eventual wife. In one of the film’s domestic fight scenes (which are more thrilling than anything that takes place in the ring), Dawn shouts at Mark that he “doesn’t know her.” We don’t really know him, either — at least not on any sort of intimate level beyond her relationship with the star of the show. Still, Blunt imbues Dawn with a sense of humanity that makes her stand out, flaws and all.
Safdie’s direction adds a layer of intimacy that his script does not, and it certainly evokes past collaborations with his brother, but there’s a stagnancy to the camera that gives The Smashing Machine an overall lack of energy, even during its most brutal moments. This all builds to an anticlimactic conclusion that, while presumably true to real events, nonetheless feels underwhelming.
Underneath all these flaws lies a good film. It’s not that The Smashing Machine is even bad. It’s just that it falls so short of its potential and has a startling lack of energy for a film about men beating each other senseless. Its best moments aren’t in the octagon — they’re in the quiet moments when Johnson’s Kerr is talking to an interviewer backstage or when Dawn and Mark are exchanging barbs in between affections in their cozy Arizona home.
The best sports biopics are about overcoming near-insurmountable odds, and Kerr certainly did that time and time again. Johnson, too, has done the same, transitioning from a wrestling star to a serious actor. But it’s clear that to go further, he may need better material to transcend. At the end of the day, The Smashing Machine still reverts to familiarity rather than pushing the needle, and it’s clear that everyone involved can do better.
The Smashing Machine screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release the film in theaters on October 3.
The Smashing Machine
4/10
- Release Date
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October 3, 2025
- Runtime
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123 minutes
- Director
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Benny Safdie
- Writers
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Benny Safdie
- Producers
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Beau Flynn, David Koplan, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
