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\u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d is a strange one: a bio-drama about the emotional sensitivities of a professional fighter. Starring Dwayne Johnson, no less, and brought to us by writer-director Benny Safdie, half of the Safdie brothers team that has made such itchy, electrifying films as \u201cGood Time\u201d (2017) and \u201cUncut Gems\u201d (2019).<\/p>\n
Those movies offered newly raw sides of their stars, Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler respectively, and, in a less volatile way, \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d shows a different facet of the Rock. I\u2019m not sure anyone asked for this movie, but I\u2019m not unhappy it\u2019s here.<\/p>\n
Johnson plays Mark Kerr, the competitive wrestler who became one of the breakout stars of mixed martial arts as that sport evolved in the late 1990s. Yet \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d avoids fight-movie clich\u00e9s at every turn, starting with the way it presents Kerr as a gentle behemoth when he\u2019s not in the ring. When he is <\/i>in the ring, he\u2019s the bone-crushing brute of the title. (Kerr has already been the subject of a 2002 HBO documentary.)<\/p>\n
Instead of structuring the narrative along classic lines of rise-rise-setback-triumph, Safdie skips the rise and plunges us into the winning streak of Kerr\u2019s early MMA bouts, culminating in his first ever loss, to Ukrainian fighter Igor Vovchanchyn (Oleksandr Usyk), in 1999. It\u2019s that upset that undoes him, leading to depression, opioid addiction and rehab, all of which \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d gets out of the way fairly quickly.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s left \u2014 what makes up the bulk of the movie \u2014 is how Kerr fares in the aftermath, as he commits himself to sobriety and tries to keep the violence out of his home and in the ring. His primary antagonist in all this, and a figure the movie can\u2019t make up its mind about, is Kerr\u2019s girlfriend and eventual wife, Dawn Staples, played by Emily Blunt with more depth, detail and compassion than the script itself provides.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s fights take up the movie\u2019s back half to the point of repetitiveness, but they stand the dynamic of, say, \u201cRaging Bull\u201d on its head by making Dawn the needy pot-stirrer provoking Kerr to anger (and the occasional fist through the door) and the fighter a good-hearted lummox desperately trying to be emotionally available. There\u2019s no assigning of blame in this; Safdie simply presents it as a relationship gone toxic, contrasted by Kerr\u2019s supportive friendship with fellow wrestler\/MMA fighter Mark Coleman, who is played with winning amateurishness by real-life fighter Ryan Bader. \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d is a movie where the muscle-bound headbangers are more in touch with their feelings than anyone else; that\u2019s the quiet irony of the title.<\/p>\n
Fans of the sport will recognize Bader, Usyk, Marcus Aur\u00e9lio, Roberto \u201cCyborg\u201d Abreu, Satoshi Ishii and Dutch kickboxer Bas Rutten as Mark\u2019s coach, all of whom appear in the film. But most audiences will be transfixed by the man playing Kerr, since Johnson has been rendered so unrecognizable through hair (he\u2019s been given some), makeup and facial prostheses that it\u2019s like watching an entirely different actor. Kerr\u2019s vulnerable side is what Safdie is interested in exploring, and Johnson responds with a thoughtful, nuanced and often moving performance \u2014 maybe not quite the stuff of Oscars but a striking achievement, nonetheless.<\/p>\n
So intent is the director on avoiding the pitfalls of the genre, though, that he ultimately manages to tap himself out. The bouts are primarily shot by Maceo Bishop from outside the ring, keeping the viewer at a dispassionate distance; Nala Sinephro\u2019s eerie, jazz-inflected score serves the same beautifully alienating purpose that Oneohtrix Point Never\u2019s synth music did for earlier Safdie brothers movies. More problematically, the gritty aesthetic of 1970s cinema \u2014 light on plot, heavy on atmosphere and character \u2014 has always been a key touchstone for these filmmakers, but in \u201cThe Smashing Machine\u201d it leads to dramatic shapelessness and a growing sense of drift.<\/p>\n
Still, the movie stands as evidence that Benny Safdie is not just half of a stellar brother act (and a fine actor, as attested to by his Edward Teller in \u201cOppenheimer\u201d) but an intriguing directing talent in his own right. That\u2019s good news given that the Safdies have amicably split as a team for the foreseeable future. December will bring Josh Safdie\u2019s solo directorial debut, \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d which stars Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet as a visionary 1950s table tennis champion and which also looks certifiably nuts.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re lucky these guys are making movies, and we\u2019re lucky there are two of them.<\/p>\n
R<\/b>. At area theaters. Contains adult language and some drug abuse. 123 minutes.<\/p>\n