After a successful run with his brother, Josh, Benny Safdie has split off on his own to make The Smashing Machine, a sports biopic starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr. The film also stars Emily Blunt as his girlfriend at the time, Dawn Staples. Primarily a two-hander between Johnson and Blunt, we follow Mark through his highs and lows as he tries to become the best fighter in the world.
The fighting movie genre, particularly through boxing, has been a longstanding vehicle for actors and directors to take a clichéd story and turn it into something unique. Sylvester Stallone most famously spawned a franchise that has spanned 50 years through the inspirational Rocky (1976). Frequent collaborators Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro made the arthouse equivalent in Raging Bull (1980). Will Smith went for the Oscar in Ali (2001).
These examples all portray boxers, not just your average fighters. Boxing has been the dominant combat sport for decades, only recently being rivaled by the likes of UFC and other MMA companies. Its popularity is partially what leads to more movies being made about it, but it’s also more inherently cinematic. MMA, at its core, brings in different fighting styles and pits them against each other, rather than each fighter having a similar set of moves and advantages found in strength and physicality.
This issue with MMA on screen is partially why The Smashing Machine was a major disappointment coming out of Toronto. Don’t get me wrong, Safdie’s direction and Maceo Bishop’s documentary-style camera work on 16mm looks gorgeous on the big screen, but even that can’t save some sweaty (both literally and figuratively) fight sequences that aren’t exciting in the slightest. Spectators boo when fighters spend too much time wrestling on the mat, and I wanted to do the same during Mark’s fights.
Outside of the fight scenes, it’s hard to find a single thing wrong with how the movie looks. The Safdies have been known for their erratic camera movements and incredibly colorful frames, and Benny brings a more focused version of that approach to The Smashing Machine. He utilizes close-ups and incredibly wide shots to make the audience feel like they’re watching a documentary subject rather than a character on screen. The intimacy we feel with Mark and Dawn is electric.
Despite some discouraging aspects of the movie, Johnson and Blunt are unequivocally outstanding. It’s by far Johnson’s best performance, and the makeup and facial transformation are unreal. His turn as Mark Kerr is undercut a few times when the story requires him to be emotional. Every time he cries, he puts his head in his hands, a cop out so he doesn’t have to shed a real tear on camera.
The highlight of his performance, however, is any time he’s portraying Mark on painkillers. There’s nothing behind his eyes, and it is truly haunting to see. This raw side of Johnson is something we’ve never seen before, and it’s a delight to see his vulnerability shine through for once.
Blunt has been Oscar-nominated for a similar role, but gets a bit less to do here than she does in Oppenheimer (2023). Dawn’s devotion to Mark could only be expressed effectively through someone like Blunt, and it’s a real shame she’s left behind or just used for Johnson to bounce off instead of feeling fully fleshed out.
The pair’s dynamic is strong, but the story does little to serve their characters throughout the movie. Every time we get a bit of narrative momentum, Mark and Dawn have the same repetitive argument that stops the story in its tracks. We get it, loud acting is good acting, as the Oscars like to reward year after year. But the same narrative beat is being hammered home every time we get moving somewhere is incredibly frustrating.
The Smashing Machine is a strong enough solo debut for Benny Safdie, but it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations that have been placed on it. It’s technically majestic and shows off his filmmaking prowess, but is undermined by poor storytelling and tonally uneven emotional moments. It’s exciting that Dwayne Johnson is trying to take his career in a different direction, and I hope that this performance propels him to push himself even further in the years to come.
Review Courtesy of Cameron K. Ritter
Feature Image Credit to A24, Courtesy of TIFF