The Smashing Machine (2025)

Dwayne Johnson gives a revelatory performance as Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie's clear-eyed and humane sports biopic. The film is praised for its intimate, documentary-like approach that avoids conventional biopic tropes while exploring the fighter's inner life.

The critic praises Dwayne Johnson's transformative performance as Mark Kerr, calling it the best of his career and a response to recent professional setbacks. Benny Safdie's direction is highlighted for creating a thoughtful, moving, and authentic portrait of loss, complexity, and failure in this unconventional sports biopic, drawing comparisons to Raging Bull and Rocky.

In Benny Safdie’s first solo film, Dwayne Johnson delivers an unexpectedly bruised and naked performance as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr, balancing savage competitiveness with childlike earnestness. The story explores his rise and opioid-addled fall, with a terrific turn from Emily Blunt as his demanding girlfriend.

The Smashing Machine is a crunchily satisfying fight movie that innovates subtly, with Dwayne Johnson shedding his daft image for a warm, sincere and ego-less performance as Mark Kerr. Safdie summons thrilling energy, and the score gives the tough story an unexpectedly sweet and spiritual edge.

An unexpectedly gentle and soulful character study that puts heart before glory in the world of MMA. Johnson undercuts his persona with vulnerability in what amounts to his The Wrestler moment.

Benny Safdie’s curious drama about the fighting life is built around Dwayne Johnson, who is very good as Mark Kerr, conjuring an elusive character with fleeting glances and remarks. It is a big man in miniature, with souls grappled with in a hard-hitting film tied to Johnson’s wrestling roots.

Dwayne Johnson shows the soft side of an MMA fighter in a gentle, introspective film that is not really a traditional sports biopic or addiction drama. Johnson’s show of vulnerability is the big draw as the real-life Kerr, whose mixture of hulking physique and mild manners suits the role perfectly.

Benny Safdie has written and directed a solid bro drama about the central crisis in the life of Mark Kerr after his first loss. The film focuses on substance abuse, relationship anxieties and the question of what life means without constant winning, with touching moments of vulnerability but without reaching for tragedy or big set pieces.

Dwayne Johnson delivers a strong performance as the fighter Mark Kerr, but the film fails to fully engage with its subject's inner life. The critic highlights Johnson's magnetic presence as the main reason to watch while noting issues with the surrounding story and direction.

Johnson gives a taut and precise performance that brings emotional depth to the role of Mark Kerr. However, the film as a whole is criticized as distanced, passionless, and overly analytical, failing to capture the extremity of the subject's experiences.

A consistently idiosyncratic and candid look at a working-class athlete with a complicated relationship and opioid addiction, more focused on learning to lose than winning. Johnson brings real vulnerability to the role in a grittier, more intimate take on the genre.

The film offers a respectful, un-sensationalist account of MMA fighter Mark Kerr that functions as a fascinating essay on physique and fame. Johnson delivers a standout performance that draws on his own wrestling background for added depth.

The critic finds the film a gritty, downbeat biopic that highlights Dwayne Johnson's most absorbing performance yet as the tormented fighter Mark Kerr, focusing on human vulnerability over athletic triumph. It singles out the realistic, documentary-style depiction of the early UFC world and the mix of raw humor and kinetic energy for praise, while noting some over-the-top domestic drama.

Safdie’s solo debut subverts expectations with a focus on the person behind the fighter, highlighting Johnson’s transformative performance and the tender, sensitive portrayal amid the brutality; praises the emotional depth and cast.

A complex, subversive take on the fighter biopic with a multifaceted Johnson performance and electric chemistry with Blunt; tender yet unpredictable, evoking catharsis through quiet moments rather than typical sports tropes.

A tender character study of vulnerability over violence, with strong performances from Johnson and Blunt; falters slightly in giving Blunt more weight, but gripping and earnest.

Praises Johnson's incredible dramatic performance and the emotional depth, calling it a powerful, thoroughly entertaining sports biopic with a sentimental gutpunch.

The critic highlights Dwayne Johnson's layered and vulnerable performance as Mark Kerr, noting his transformation and the film's positive depiction of masculinity. However, they criticize the tame, conventional storytelling, generic biopic beats, and one-dimensional supporting characters.

The critic commends Dwayne Johnson's successful sublimation of his star persona into a realistic, smaller-than-life portrayal of Mark Kerr and the film's empathetic approach. They single out the overly faithful adherence to the source documentary's realism as a flaw that results in a conventional and somewhat slow biopic lacking lyricism or risk.

The critic finds the domestic scenes with Johnson and Blunt the strongest, praising their performances, but calls the overall film a fairly conventional and dull sports drama that doesn't quicken the pulse.

The critic finds it a well-meaning but conventional sports drama that lacks emotional depth in relationships and brutality in the ring, with Johnson’s performance committed but stiff. Praises the style but criticizes it for having style but no guts.

The critic highlights Dwayne Johnson's remarkable, unrecognizable performance as Mark Kerr and the film's abstract, zen-like approach to the biopic, comparing it to a Buddhist Raging Bull, noting its haunting effect and resistance to conventional structure.

The critic finds the film surprisingly gentle and introspective despite its fighting subject, praising Dwayne Johnson's transformative performance as the calm, addicted fighter Mark Kerr and Safdie's counterintuitive directorial choices like using an Elvis ballad for a training montage.