The Smashing Machine

A film set within the world of combat sports is always a surefire winner.

Whilst it means we’ve pretty much seen everything there is to see there’s just something about this world, and the people who inhabit it, whether real, imagined or influenced, that make it so engrossing.

So it is with The Smashing Machine, one to add to the heavyweights of the combat sport genre.

It’s a Raging Bull-esque biopic (although not quite hitting that all-timer level) of early MMA/UFC fighter Mark Kerr, a pioneer of the sport but not a household name.

He’s a man who [spoiler alert] even loses his last fight here and is not necessarily an all time great but is someone layered enough to base this enthralling tale on.

Much has been made of the pivot to ‘real acting’ by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson here. Now, Johnson’s always been a charismatic, thoroughly watchable and great actor. Blockbuster acting takes its own kind of brilliance but it is fair to also say that he is transformative here.

It’s an awards-worthy performance and, if that’s your sole motivation for watching this, then so be it.

Luckily for anyone with this thought process, Benny Safdie builds such a sense of time and place around him that takes things way beyond this just being a film anchored around its lead performance.

The indie stylings and retro feel lock you in and everything is so meticulously designed and realised.

The in-ring stuff is tense, entertaining and dynamic (but could maybe be more visceral) and is bolstered with all of the real fighting talent on screen (including Oleksandr Usyk). In fact, the cinematography throughout is impeccable.

Kerr’s relationship with the ring, and his relationship with pain medication because of it, largely drive the film but perhaps most revealing, real and heart-breaking is his relationship with his partner at the time Dawn.

Emily Blunt does so much with a role that is arguably underserved. Some of the scenes they share show so much both spoken and unspoken and it turns the film into an emotional drama at points. They're easily the film's highlights.

Another heavyweight contender.

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