The Smashing Machine is Benny Safdie’s first feature film as a solo director, following his previous collaborations with his brother Josh. The premiere was held in the Venice Film Festival competition, and was one of many puzzling choices in that strand. Since it is produced by A24, the expectations were not high. The film is an arthouse dramatisation of the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name, which tells the true story of Mark Kerr, the legendary MMA fighter. He is portrayed as a pioneer in a sport that later made its champions rich and famous. Kerr is played by Dwayne Johnson, who has no problems filling out the frame physically.

The film kicks off in 1997, where we see Kerr make short work of the task of beating his opponent with a knee to the face. Soon enough, his fighting will take its toll, and he will be addicted to opioids. His best friend, Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), seems to mean at least as much to Kerr as his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt). Since the sport is not yet big in the US, most of its fighting takes place in Japan, including against what appears to be his archenemy, Igor Vovchanchyn. It quickly dawns on his girlfriend that her hubby’s activities require his full concentration, leaving little time to spend with her. All of the above causes predictable friction.

If this makes The Smashing Machine sound like a run-of-the-mill story that we’ve seen countless times before, it is not entirely wrong. What makes the film stand out in a way is that it doesn’t overplay any of those elements. In an early scene, Kerr loses to Igor Vovchanchyn, but only because the latter breaks the rules. Still, there are no Rocky moments or overly dramatised feelings. When they meet afterwards, they talk like friends. Kerr, as portrayed by Johnson, comes off as a friendly giant who wishes everyone well, but struggles with his own health issues. Even the arguments with Dawn are relatively restrained for this kind of film, even if they reach a climax in a late scene.

What is the point of The Smashing Machine?

The cinematography mostly avoids close-ups and instead keeps a respectful distance from its subject. If the film is avoiding the hackneyed tropes associated with the genre, what is it doing instead? The answer is: not that much. The Smashing Machine may be refreshingly sober, but it renders the film bland in a manner that makes one wonder why the film was even made. The film was shot on 16mm film and 70mm IMAX film, making it the first A24 film to utilise IMAX film cameras. Still, the style is not particularly prominent, like most other elements in this peculiar film. It is so modest that it hardly exists.

One could draw comparisons with Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw (2023), which depicted a different kind of wrestling. Stylistically, the films are quite different since Durkin’s film was shot by Mátyás Erdély and had a more distinctive look. The 123-minute runtime of Safdie’s film could have been shortened significantly. If this film feels meaningless, it is, unfortunately, indicative of this year’s Biennale competition, which has churned out one lacklustre film after another. Someone told me that The Smashing Machine works as a dictionary definition of the word. It is easy to agree with that sentiment. There is not much to talk about in the action department either. Some people were delighted to see Dwayne Johnson, even mentioning awards.

Since American awards are basically a popularity contest, it might very well happen. The former wrestler seems likeable enough to make the audience and award voters happy. Alas, it doesn’t make The Smashing Machine the least bit interesting.

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