Director: Benny Safdie

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader

Synopsis:

"The Smashing Machine," directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, delves into the intense world of mixed martial arts (MMA) during the late 1990s. The film opens with Kerr's early victories, showcasing his dominance in the ring while simultaneously highlighting the internal turmoil he faces due to addiction to painkillers and the pressures of maintaining his undefeated status.

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In the opening scene of “The Smashing Machine,” Benny Safdie’s bracing, clear-eyed, and laceratingly humane sports biopic, we see grainy staged video footage of Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), the mixed martial arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship star, in his very first amateur bout. Kerr originally won notoriety as a wrestler, and in case anyone has wandered into the movie thinking that it might be about “fake wrestling,” this fight will dispel that delusion: It ends with Kerr crouching on top of his opponent, assaulting him with one merciless bare-knuckle punch after another, reducing his face to a bloody pulp.

As all of this is happening, we hear Kerr’s voice on the soundtrack — it’s a voice that’s disarmingly gentle and sweet — describing, to an interviewer, the high he gets when he’s destroying his opponent in the ring and he can feel that turning-point moment when the other fighter crumples and submits. This makes sense to us, but at the same time it doesn’t sound too far removed from a serial killer’s description of the high he gets from strangling someone to death. “When you win,” says Mark, “nothing else in the world matters.” He’s talking about wrestling, but he’s really talking about violence: the thrill of it, the kill of it.

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