MIDNIGHT REVIEWS The Smashing Machine Movie Review

This movie is really… good.

Matthew D. Smith also has a podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai. You can find it here.

The Smashing Machine (2hr 3mins)

Directed by: Benny Safdie

Featuring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader

Synopsis: This is the story of UFC fighter Mark Kerr.

Review: There’s a sub-section of sub-par film critique that consistently asks the question ‘Is this even a movie?’ Where this leads to is an inevitable twenty minutes of finagling over what constitutes cinema, before people actually start talking about what they thought of the thing they deign to give the label of ‘movie.’ Some people say ‘film’ because film is fancier.

Where this comes from, perhaps, is some modern movies’ proclivities to de-emphasise their structure, particularly when it comes to peaks and troughs. The high and low points of a movie providing purposefully-placed emotional points that often provide a story’s highlights; the moments you go home talking about. This is where The Smashing Machine begins to break down.

Not that The Smashing Machine should adhere to structural rules. The sports movie is a veritable minefield of staid tropes that Benny Safdie does well enough to navigate. But the feeling is that something big is going to happen and yet, when it does, the film swiftly moves on from it. Both Kerr and his girlfriend Dawn (Blunt) have significant portions of their lives skipped over; moments from their lives ripe for exploration. Safdie is a good enough director that he wouldn’t have fallen into the melodrama. So why does it feel like The Smashing Machine is playing it somewhat safe?

[Johnson] allows himself to be far more vulnerable.

Based partly on the 2002 documentary of the same name, the narrative follows Mark Kerr (Johnson) as he fights both inside and outside the ring (the one piece of formulaic dichotomy the movie keeps hold of from the sports genre collection). We see him early on in the life of the UFC. Whilst nowadays fighters are world-famous and earn more than I do in a lifetime, back in Kerr’s day fighters had to bleed and hit hard just to get by. Johnson plays him as a gentle giant. When potentially in line to fight his best friend, Kerr repeats their motto of having fun; one of the first scenes features him battering an opponent and then hassling the referee whilst checking said opponent is okay.

Emily Blunt somehow manages to play a character of two and a half dimensions. When her and Johnson are together the film tightens and it feels more like Safdie’s earlier offerings (Good Time, Uncut Gems), but there are large sections of the movie where you suddenly realise Blunt hasn’t been on screen for a while and this is the reason the quality’s dipped.

Not that Johnson isn’t able to carry the movie on his substantial shoulders (patent pending on that review line cliché). A final scene featuring the real Mark Kerr demonstrates Johnson’s ability to affect Kerr’s mannerisms, and Johnson’s megawatt charisma has rarely failed him when looking over his career. He allows himself to be far more vulnerable. Oscar talk may be hyperbole, but he is far more engaging now he’s been given material beyond Kevin Hart buddy comedies and disaster movies. It’s just Johnson’s best work here comes when he’s playing opposite Blunt, and the film re-starts exploring what makes each character tick.

As much as the fight scenes hit hard, these scenes hit harder. You route for Kerr, a recovering drug addict, when Dawn starts drinking in front of him; you internally beg for him to look at his own behaviour when criticising her over a cactus.

[This is] me pining for the movie we didn’t get.

Fight scenes are, admittedly, brutal. Sound design ensures the punches land hard and each hit forces a wince. A scene where Johnson insists he didn’t lose is heart breaking as you see someone struggle to stop themselves reverting to their childhood; someone who’s never lost finally being told he’s done so. The simple act of following Johnson as he walks through a hotel and catches a lift is breathtaking and painful in equal measure.

So why do I state The Smashing Machine is breaking down in my second paragraph when there’s all this good material to play with? I haven’t even mentioned the sequence featuring a trainer, an old injury and the power of Dwayne Johnson walking in silence. It’s me pining for the movie we didn’t get, which I know is unfair but ultimately this is the feeling walking out of the cinema. Moments that felt powerful, compelling and poignant but, for the most part, examined at arm’s length before being swept aside for the next hit.

At time of writing, The Smashing Machine is available to watch in cinemas. Go! Go to the big screen!

Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or enjoy the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.