The Smashing Machine

 

This review may contain spoilers!

The Smashing Machine is a biographical feature detailing a few pivotal years in the life of MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The film shows the early years of mixed martial arts becoming recognised as a competitive sport and the challenges Kerr faced as a competitor, within his relationship and as an addict.

This is the sort of film that perfectly exercises what a good biopic strives to achieve; it crafts a compelling character piece. Mark Kerr is the focal force of this story in every way. The film opens with his signature calm, measured tone, lightly describing what fighting is like as we visually see the graphic violence of a fight being played out. Kerr's gentle giant nature switching into these incredible moments of physical domination is a sharp contrast I quite enjoyed early on. It makes Kerr an unpredictable element, especially if you are unfamiliar with his story, as I was. As the film progresses, we come to see Kerr as a volatile figure abusing himself with opiates, destroying his state of life. This was the strength of the film; these character struggles where Kerr would excuse and pity himself, where conflict would erupt between him and Dawn, and where Kerr would strive for improvement only for Dawn to resent him for it. The Smashing Machine has plenty of neat visceral fight scenes for you to sink your teeth into, but the character conflict at play here packs a much harder punch. I remember watching Kerr make his peace in the showers near the end of the film, as Coleman celebrated his success, and thinking this was a fighting story that defied expectations in a relatively satisfying way.

Benny Safdie crafts this wonderful film, and I felt his touch really elevates this into something special. This film boasts a unique visual style reminiscent of old-school home video footage. Watching a camera manually push in while still immersing the audience is impressive. The editing feels neatly choreographed to the story, each scene gliding along at a neat pace. The score for this film is discordant and collides with an impact. I also really adored the way the soundtrack not only grounded us in the time period but also provided a very sobering, melancholy sound to this feature.

Emily Blunt, who played Dawn Staples, has found one of her most wretched roles to date; Blunt's character is so toxic, and how this manifests is really steadily presented. Bas Rutten, who played himself, is undeniably earnest in his scene work; Rutten gives a light shade of hope to the film that I rather enjoyed. 

However, the best performance came from Dwayne Johnson, who played Mark Kerr. This film is tied entirely to this central performance and lays down the expectation that Johnson's take on Kerr will carry the whole thing home. The curiosity in this is whether Johnson has the range capable of leading a dramatic lead like this. He's immediately unlike anything we have ever seen before. Kerr has a soft-spoken manner that makes him very calming to listen to, even when he's speaking about the nature of fighting. Johnson does a good job of finding the little mannerisms of Kerr, even within the elements of portraying opiate addiction. One of my favourite parts of his portrayal was how he voiced frustration when his expectations weren't met and then almost immediately withdrew the remark and retreated into himself. Johnson shows how challenged Kerr was at this time; his mentality after the No Contest match was a real jaw-dropper. The final fight Johnson and Blunt share onscreen is the height of the film and speaks to the layered character work the pair embarked on to create this dynamic. Dwayne Johnson isn't just out here making cash grab blockbusters; he is genuinely the real deal.

The Smashing Machine is quite bound by the limits of a movie that takes place significantly within 'The Ring'. As an audience, we sit there and expect that when we see Mark Kerr as 'unbeatable', he will be due for a great fall, and from there will have to work through his struggles to get some form of comeback status. The film is a bit unconventional in delivery, but it still wades into these easier story elements and comfortably hovers there. Seeing Mark's fighting career go up and down is the part of the story that lacks teeth and holds little surprise. I also needed this film to have way less Mark Coleman focused upon; the character lacked substance, and the film tumbled to a halt when he had to lead a scene. The worst part of The Smashing Machine is that final scene set in modern day, tracking the real Mark Kerr around as he giggles to himself over being filmed. It's a strange, awkward footnote that confuses the power behind the story that was just delivered.

Ryan Bader, who played Mark Coleman, is clearly a talented fighter but a wooden actor; Bader's acting is one of the single worst things about The Smashing Machine. Whitney Moore, who played Jacqueline, is a really shallow best friend character to Blunt; Moore and Blunt struggle to draw anything meaningful out of one another in their scene together.

This is a performance from Dwayne Johnson unlike anything you have seen before. I would give The Smashing Machine a 7.5/10.