REEL | Dwayne Johnson Defeats 'The Smashing Machine' x TIFF 2025

"Am I going to hurt him before he hurts me?"

Toronto International Film Festival

Superstar Dwayne Johnson (also a producer) makes his much-hyped, serious dramatic turn in one-half of the Safdie brothers and newly solo writer/director Benny Safdie's tender biographical sports drama, The Smashing Machine (titled after the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name), chronicling the highs and lows of mixed martial arts pioneer and former UFC/Pride FC fighting champion Mark Kerr between 1997 and 2001 during the height of his addiction to opiod painkillers.

A dolled-up Emily Blunt reteams with Johnson as Kerr's codependent then-girlfriend, Dawn Staples, in an affecting supporting role that gives Johnson's portrayal further emotional gravitas as he suffers through the brutal pain of combat sports competition. Alongside them, actual MMA heavyweight fighter Ryan Bader co-stars as fellow fighter and trainer Mark Coleman in a sterling, naturalistic performance that builds out the gritty realism of the sports drama captured on 16mm film stock (then flawlessly upconverted up to IMAX's large format).

There are few traces of Johnson's famously charismatic "The Rock" wrestling persona as he bulks up and adopts a soft-speaking voice to embody the humanity of Kerr's gentle giant persona prone to outbursts of violent temperament in the ring. It's a complex performance of contradictions that's fully fleshed out and made all the more entertaining alongside his relationship with the highly combustible Staples.

Johnson and Safdie make The Smashing Machine a rousing experience. It's casual bursts of brutality only strengthen its small moments of pain, frustration, and brotherhood. All of the performances are remarkably touching as the film as a whole acts as a subversive portrait of the fragility of manhood in someone who gets his highs from the roar of the crowd and inflicting violence on others.

The Smashing Machine screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations program.


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