Benny Safdie’s first solo project about MMA fighter Mark Kerr’s drug-addled ascent to early UFC fame simmers but never boils, despite Dwayne Johnson’s stand-out performance
September 2, 2025 11:22
With UFC drama The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie is back in the director’s chair for the first time in six years – and for the first time without brother Josh by his side.
Two of the most important Jewish filmmakers to emerge from the New York indie scene in the past decade, the Safdie Brothers are behind such anxiety-inducing films as Good Time, with Robert Pattinson, and the sublime 2019 film Uncut Gems. Now they’re going solo.
With Josh putting the finishing touches to his own solo project, Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, Benny is first out the gate with this solidly crafted – if slightly muted – true-life sports drama, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week. Taking place between 1997 and 2000, the film follows Mark Kerr and his friend and sometime trainer Mark Coleman, two early pioneers in the mixed-martial arts contact sport UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).
Playing Kerr is Dwayne Johnson, a former professional wrestler of course, who here dives into his character with gusto. Despite the usual man-mountain physique, he’s barely recognisable at first, with his close crop of dark hair lending him a very different look. When we meet Kerr, he’s undefeated: “Winning is the best feeling there is,” he claims, riding high on a wave of adulation.
While he lives with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt, spray-tanned to within an inch of her life), he’s often on the road. One of the more intriguing aspects of the film is how much of it takes place in Tokyo, with Kerr frequently competing in a tournament called ‘Pride’. But it’s here where things begin to unravel, as Kerr loses a fight after being kneed in the head several times. It should’ve been called a foul, he says.
If this sends him on a spiral, it doesn’t help that he’s injecting highly-addictive opioids to manage the constant injuries he has to nurse as a fighter. “A day without pain is like a day without sunshine,” he chirrups, like a mantra. And it’s not hard to see why these drugs are so alluring; when his trainer Bas (Bas Rutten, a former MMA fighter, playing himself) pulls a tendon, Kerr gives him a shot to ease the agony.
The Smashing Machine tackles Kerr’s struggles to get sober and the pent-up aggression it leaves him with (at one point he mangles a door at home like it’s made of cardboard), but you’d be hard-pressed to call this an addiction drama. Rather it’s a character study of Kerr, and the others around him, including Coleman (real-life MMA fighter Ryan Bader), a father and friend who, at one point, drops everything to fly to Arizona when Kerr is stricken.
Their friendship gives the film its heart, just as Kerr’s tempestuous relationship with Dawn gives it an edge. Her casual drinking on nights out with friends doesn’t exactly help his attempts to stay sober. Squabbles between Johnson and Blunt are compelling, and Johnson – most famous for the Fast & Furious franchise – is really given room to flex his acting muscles here. It’s a terrific performance, his Raging Bull, you might say.
Safdie truly immerses his audience in the world of UFC, to the point that you can practically smell the sweat and taste the blood. But the drama is more domestic than ring-bound; don’t expect a triumphant Rocky-style finale here. It recalls Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, which won Venice’s Golden Lion back in 2008. But that hinged brilliantly on the Mickey Rourke comeback story. Here, The Smashing Machine simmers, with Kerr’s story never quite boasting a compelling, blood-curdling arc.
But you’ll still feel the bruises the whole way through.
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