In a gritty dive into the brutal world of early MMA, Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine made waves at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival last month. Premiering on September 1, the biopic stars Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, the real-life UFC champion whose career highs collided with personal lows in addiction and trauma. Safdie, stepping out solo after his brother Josh, crafts a raw tale based on a 2002 documentary, blending fight scenes with quiet domestic unravelings.
Johnson, often typecast in blockbuster heroics, sheds the charisma here for a haunted vulnerability. His Kerr grapples with heroin dependency amid 1990s cage matches, supported by Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn Staples. The film snagged the Silver Lion for best director, a nod to Safdie's kinetic style—think shaky cams in the octagon and ambient jazz scores that linger like post-fight haze. However, not everyone was floored; some critics noted the movie's adherence to realism borders on detachment, pulling back from emotional haymakers.
Indeed, Variety hailed Johnson's performance as revelatory, while The New Yorker quipped it pulls its punches in passion. Rotten Tomatoes pegs it Certified Fresh at around 85%, with audiences buzzing over the prosthetics transforming The Rock into a battered wrestler. Ryan Bader and Bas Rutten add authenticity as fellow fighters, grounding the spectacle in Kerr's actual triumphs—two UFC titles before the crashes.
Moreover, the timing feels ripe: releasing October 3 via A24, just as MMA's popularity surges. Safdie drew from Kerr's life directly, even consulting him post-premiere. Yet, for all its lacerating humanity, the film whispers rather than roars at times. However, in an era of glossy sports dramas, this one's unpolished edge might just stick.
One wonders if Kerr's story, now immortalized, will redefine how we see the unbreakable in broken fighters.