On screen in The Smashing Machine, premiering this Thursday, October 2, Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) looks like a human war tank. He’s huge, has defined muscles all over his body, and is known for never losing in UFC fights, a championship that was just taking its first steps in the 1990s. However, the portrait of Kerr in the film is far from a Rocky Balboa — the fighter is, in fact, a sentimental man.
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That seems to be the focus of filmmaker and screenwriter Benny Safdie, a director who built a remarkable career with his brother in movies like Uncut Gems. Now, he stands on his own in a film that has something to say beyond being just a biopic. Naturally, many aspects of Kerr’s life are portrayed here: his opioid addiction, his very complicated relationship with his wife (played by a brilliant Emily Blunt), and his friendships in the ring.
However, all of this only serves as a springboard to reveal Kerr as a man who cries. A man who is afraid. He refuses to go on an amusement park ride because of his weak stomach; he tells a random little boy not to be violent; when he tells a friend he wants to go out and have fun, he just goes to the hotel entrance in Japan to sign autographs — he doesn’t go to a bar, for partying, or anything like that.
The Smashing Machine: masculinity’s complexity (and fragility)
It’s precisely this visual and narrative complexity that Safdie seems to seek at all costs. Obviously, there is still something violent in Kerr. It’s impossible to escape that, especially being a man who makes money with punches, kicks, and knockouts. In one of the film’s moments, for example, he destroys a door, ripping it in half. But it’s an isolated moment within this attempt to make a “muscle man” complex. In the end, a brute man who cries is the most powerful image of The Smashing Machine.
For this proposal to work — and it really does — two people are essential in the process: Safdie and The Rock. The first proves himself to be a truly competent director, even without his brother by his side. His filming style helps The Smashing Machine move away from the obvious narrative of a biopic. It avoids exaggerated moments of glory and instead approaches human despair and fragility. The movie has more scenes of Kerr recovering from something than actually fighting.
It’s almost like a film about breaking expectations (even though the fight scenes are there). After all, the focus is not Kerr’s career — which could even be considered somewhat of a failure. It’s about his humanity and who he is as a person. A giant can still have a heart.
Dwayne Johnson’s great film
Here, Dwayne Johnson is the big surprise of the equation and essential to the process of humanizing Kerr. On one hand, he lends all his physicality to the character — he’s naturally intimidating, brutish. However, the former wrestler’s acting softens these traits with a man who doesn’t know how to handle everything around him. At the same time that he’s naturally threatening, The Rock also comes across as someone deeply threatened by the environment suffocating him in many moments. Something typical of a great performance.
With this, The Smashing Machine dives headfirst into awards season. Sure, some things could be clearer and more refined. That’s the case with the themes of toxic and forced masculinity, but the good ideas are there, reflected in a direction that knows how to cause unease both in form and content. Proof that we should keep an eye on the Safdies, together or apart.
