Repairing ‘The Smashing Machine’
by Rax King
Why did The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson as UFC pioneer Mark Kerr, flop at the box office? Let’s debunk one common theory now: The Rock took a big pay cut to star in this movie, reportedly taking only $4 million when his usual fee is $20 million, so his salary is not wholly to blame.
Playing a fighter struggling to stay sober, Johnson nails the real Kerr’s ingratiating Midwestern affect, as captured in John Hyams’s 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr. Johnson’s performance has been described as a naked Oscar grab, but in truth it is subtle, rather than showy: the insecurity, the self-consciousness, they’re in every gesture he makes, every dead-eyed smile. He presents such a complete character that, in the moments when he suddenly loses his temper, we realize we’d unconsciously been dreading it. It’s hardly a spoiler to say that Mark never hits his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), or to say that throughout the film we expect him to.
“Audience identity crisis” is the term used in a jolly Variety listicle about the film’s failure, a piece that’s otherwise notable only for making two bad jokes in a row about filmgoers being unable to “smell what the Rock is cooking.” (Why are people always so gleeful when they get to sneer at the Rock?) The claim here is essentially that UFC is for boys, while indie films are for girls and old people, and so the audience for a quiet film about a wrestler on a losing streak simply doesn’t exist. But marketing this as a sports movie was a mistake. It’s a drug addiction movie, a codependent-relationships movie, and on this level it excels. The climactic scene doesn’t happen in the ring; it happens at home, with Mark scream-sobbing “DON’T YOU WORK MY PROGRAM FOR ME!” while Dawn criticizes his sobriety.
So anyone hoping for a classic sports biopic will be disappointed by The Smashing Machine—and so will anyone looking for the next Uncut Gems, the frenetic and stylized hit film made by both Safdie brothers. This offering, from just one Safdie, is relatively mild-mannered, almost muted, even in its lively UFC and Pride fight scenes.
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