The Smashing Machine

I don’t know much about UCF. My dad likes watching WWE which is the closest I’ve ever come to watching any form of professional fighting. So to say I was coming in to The Smashing Machine blind would be an understatement.

The film stars Dwyane Johnson as Mark Kerr, a UCF fighter whose career spans from the late 1990s through the 2000s. We watch as his struggles with his career, relationship, and drug addiction as his life spirals during the 2000 Pride Grand Prix.

This is the first film Benny Safdie has done without his brother Josh and I have to say it is slightly disappointing. I did have high expectations, as I have a big fan of the brothers previous works, but this just lacked the oomph earlier Safdie films had. The biggest issue is the character of Mark himself. Johnson plays him well and will likely be receiving an Oscar nomination for this performance, but the script doesn’t let us really connect with Mark. It’s hard to feel bad for him about his inner turmoil when we don’t get to see much about Mark himself. He just seems constantly pissed and not much else and since this film relies heavily on just Mark as a person, the film comes across as a bit boring. It makes this one hundred and twenty minute film feel like three hours.

I will give this film its merits though. The score is absolutely wonderful. Big props to Nala Sinephro for this wonderful synthey soundtrack. The look of this film is fantastic too. It captures that early 2000s feel perfectly. There are a lot of zooms and swivels, with the camera feeling like it never stood still, which added to the stress the characters were feeling. The fights were also really well choreographed.

I wish I could like this one more than I do. I do think this will be a crowd pleaser at award seasons but I could be wrong. Right now I just feel like the film is alright. I am now both nervous and excited to see what Josh Safdie does with Marty Surpeme in December.