Cageside Press was invited to an advanced screening of The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson as MMA pioneer Mark Kerr.
***READER BE WARNED, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
Presenting Hollywood’s biggest star in a new light is no easy feat, but that is where A24’s latest film The Smashing Machine shines. Dwayne Johnson, known around the world as simply “The Rock” from his days as an active WWE superstar, delivered a grounded performance that was a departure from the high octane blockbusters that have made him the highest paid actor in the world.
Johnson portrays MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, a former collegiate wrestler turned mixed martial artist who found fame in Japan’s PRIDE organization in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. For those unfamiliar with the real life career of Kerr, “The Smashing Machine” opened his career with a perfect 12-0 that saw him win UFC tournaments (in the era before the weight classes had sitting champions) at UFC 14 and UFC 15. The film itself is largely set on his time in PRIDE, specifically his loss to Igor Vovchanchyn in 1999 and later splitting a pair of fights in the heavyweight Grand Prix in the year 2000.
While there is a decent amount of MMA to be seen, the film largely centers on the real life struggles of Kerr outside the ring. It is here where Johnson flexes his dramatic acting chops as opposed to saying the quips he is often delivering in his more mainstream projects. The already muscled Johnson underwent a physical transformation for a physique that is an accurate photo match to Kerr’s from that era, but it is his commitment to nailing the mannerisms of the film’s namesake that provide demonstrate Johnson’s commitment to the nuances of the role. As put by Kerr himself, seeing Johnson turn into him was jaw-dropping:
“The first time I ever saw DJ in prosthetics. In Vancouver, it’s fight week and I’m working with the team to go over some stuff. At this point I’ve had multiple conversations with DJ over Zoom and in person. Incredible digging and digging and ‘in this moment what were you thinking?’ He’s looking for his emotional nuggets. I turn around in Vancouver and he’s standing behind me and nobody told me he was going to get prosthetics and like cauliflower ear and all this other stuff. And I just couldn’t stop cussing at him. I probably forearmed him like four or five times. Like **** you dude like seriously?! It was me. He’s standing there and it’s like ‘Oh my God. You’re me.’ But I could see him. But he’s me. Add in everything: the layers of my speech pattern, my walk, my hand gestures, it literally sat me back when I watched it the first time with Benny in California. I was speechless.’
The film is carried by the performances of Johnson and Emily Blunt who portrays Kerr’s ex-wife Dawn. The Jungle Cruise co-stars deliver an electrifying chemistry and it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the film is about their relationship during this time in his career. Blunt’s seasoned acting provides the perfect foil as Johnson’s Kerr deals with his struggles outside the ring.
Johnson shines presenting the struggles of Kerr: lying to those around him, the denial, acceptance, and ultimately the sobering aftermath that illustrates the real-life reality that recovery does not magically fix all of one’s struggles overnight. It is here where Blunt delivers a superb performance as Dawn and where the writing of Safdie must be commended. In this writer’s opinion, the film is generating buzz for the award season because of the fact that the three brilliantly illustrated the complexities of the relationship between Mark and Dawn. It is made very clear that Dawn is as dutiful as one can attempt to be as her partner lives the life of a fighter, but the film shines in showing that the differences and individual struggles the two have in their personal lives bled into the professional life of Mark. For Blunt, the appeal of playing a character like Dawn was the appeal of lending her talents to the project:
“I was so delighted to work with Benny (Safdie) I had really wanted to do something with him and I knew that the way that he worked was very spontaneous. Aliveness that his movies have. That it would allow space to create a relationship that was full of complexity. I think to play someone like Dawn who is the full weather system is really exciting for me and challenging and I think Mark and Dawn are very open with me and with DJ with the life of their relationship. I found it heart wrenching because I think they were both really striving for a happy medium and it was so elusive for a myriad of reasons. I think I’ve never had a chance to put a relationship on screen that was very much not a movie relationship. It was really representative that someone can be your greatest love and a huge support system and they can also be your undoing. They can be your tender spot. They can be all of those things. And it felt very true to life. I was so thrilled to do it with my best buddy.”
Outside of the two leads, a special mention must be given to former Bellator two-division champion Ryan Bader who excelled with the material given as he portrayed another UFC Hall of Famer in Kerr’s longtime friend Mark Coleman. Bader stood out opposite several scenes with his more seasoned co-stars and his role as Coleman was integral to portraying how far the struggles of Kerr affected those outside of the relationship that made up the heart of the movie. Another honorable mention goes to undisputed boxing heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for his portrayal of Igor Vovchanchyn. Whether Usyk competes in MMA in real life (possibly against Jake Paul) is anyone’s guess, but the Ukrainian star should be commended for looking very comfortable competing outside of his specialty on both counts.
Lending itself to Johnson’s departure from his usual fare is the fact that the film does not end with a stereotypical story of triumph. Viewers unaware of Kerr’s career may be disappointed that there was no neat bow on the run of “The Smashing Machine” and it is even hinted that there was a little more turmoil for Mark and Dawn after the events shown. But the film also pays homage honestly to where Kerr is now, featuring a cameo from Mark himself. But therein lies the beauty of the narrative which Johnson says was Safdie’s vision all along:
“Not only did I want to tell Mark’s story and tell it with Benny who had this incredible vision right away. But also I wanted to do it with one of my best friend’s (Blunt) who I knew was going to push me as an actor. Also, in a way the movie represents a lot of things for all of us. It also is a love letter to the men and women out there who get knocked down and are just trying. Sometimes when you’re reaching for that big brass ring and you’re going for it. You give everything you’ve got to go for it and it doesn’t happen and you lose. And you lose everything. In Benny’s words, he wanted to make a movie where you lose it all and you know what? It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. And you saw that in the supermarket scene when you see Mark.”
