TMS Movie Review: The Smashing Machine
(A24 Films)
Watching Benny Safdie’s new sports drama The Smashing Machine confirmed one thing for me: we did not give Amy Adams enough credit for how influential her performance in David O. Russell’s The Fighter (2010) was. Since the trailer for The Smashing Machine dropped, quite a few fans have joked about Emily Blunt coming across as Heidi Gardner’s SNL character Angel, ‘every movie boxer’s girlfriend,’ which in itself felt like it was inspired by Adams’ Oscar nominated role. And while hilariously spot-on as the sketch character was, the reminder fortunately doesn’t completely take away from Blunt’s spin on the sexy, tempestuous significant other either.
Set from 1997 to 2000, Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) is a local Phoenix, AZ, mixed martial arts fighter with a ton of potential. Despite his gruesome profession, Mark has a wholesome and easygoing personality and lives a quaint life away from the ring. When he gets ripped off and experiences an embarrassing loss at his first tournament in Tokyo, Japan, Mark digresses into addiction with painkillers and steroids and a rocky relationship with longtime girlfriend Dawn (Blunt).
(A24 Films)
Real-life wrestling champion Ryan Bader co-stars as Mark’s best friend and fellow wrestler Mark Coleman. The Smashing Machine is based on John Hyams’ 2002 documentary of the same name on the life and legacy of the real Mark Kerr. From the reviews and comments I’ve come across online, Safdie’s new film is very faithful to the original doc, to the point where some scenes feel like reenactments with Hollywood actors. Since I’m not familiar with the source or Kerr’s real life, I didn’t have this issue during my viewing [although I did think one fight sequence felt reminiscent of a famous scene from Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980)]. However, I’m also not a fan of sports or dramas about athletes in general, so most of these movies sort of blend into the same thing after a while to me. A lot of attention has been on WWE/UFC champion-turned-movie star Johnson’s big, dramatic debut here. While he’s fine, I did keep wondering if the make-up and prosthetics to make him resemble Kerr were doing some of the lifting. Outside of Blunt’s acting, and especially Bader’s, who is so natural I never would have guessed this was his first film, I don’t think The Smashing Machine will have a lasting impression on me.