Few motion pictures launched in 2025 really feel extra unfairly handled than A24’s The Smashing Machine. Regardless of Dwayne Johnson delivering what’s inarguably the efficiency of his profession, the sports activities biopic underperformed on the worldwide field workplace, grossing simply $21 million in opposition to a roughly $50 million finances (by way of Box Office Mojo).
What’s worse, The Smashing Machine’s dangerous luck hasn’t let up. Early awards buzz and predictions of Oscar nominations for the film’s forged and crew merely didn’t materialize. At the same time as phrase unfold concerning the stable performances of the forged and the creative imaginative and prescient of director Benny Safdie, the MMA biopic has been all however snubbed at the Academy Awards.
It’s an unimaginable disgrace. The Smashing Machine is an distinctive drama that resonates each with followers of sports activities movies and normal viewers alike. The truth that it’s at present the #1 film on HBO Max (by way of Flix Patrol), eclipsing even Oscar darling Sinners, reveals that audiences related deeply with the fabric, making the dearth of Academy recognition for each the movie and its standout performances all of the more durable to swallow.
What The Smashing Machine Is About
Dwayne Johnson’s Biopic Recounts The Rise And Fall Of MMA Pioneer Mark Kerr
Like many of the best sports dramas, The Smashing Machine relies on a real story. The 2025 Dwayne Johnson film brings the tumultuous lifetime of Mark Kerr to screens. Mark Kerr, a former novice wrestler turned combined martial arts legend, was an extremely complicated determine whose rise in fight competitors was as compelling as his private struggles had been devastating.
Directed and written by Benny Safdie, The Smashing Machine follows Kerr from his early success and grueling combat schedule by means of his battles with accidents, habit, and the emotional toll of life each inside and outdoors the ring. Nonetheless, the film steers away from the standard triumph-over-adversity sports activities method.
As a substitute, The Smashing Machine delivers a raw portrait of an MMA fighter who finds that victory and ache are sometimes inseparable. Kerr’s aggressive peak in Japan’s PRIDE Combating Championship and his emotionally strained relationship with Daybreak Staples (performed by Emily Blunt) type the narrative core, illustrating how his private demons typically mirrored his bodily battles.
Mark Kerr’s actual story is a wealthy tapestry of grit and vulnerability, and The Smashing Machine portrays this extremely properly. As soon as a dominant pressure within the early days of MMA, Dwayne Johnson captures Kerr’s troubled relationship along with his profession as he grapples with continual ache and opioid dependency stemming from repeated accidents.
Ben Safdie’s directorial selections emphasize emotional authenticity over spectacle. As a substitute of glitzy montage sequences, the movie opts for intimate scenes that delve into Kerr’s inside battle, making audiences really feel the burden of each punch, setback, and selection. The result’s a sports activities drama anchored not by shiny clichés however by a deeply human story, one anchored by Dwayne Johnson’s incredible character work.
How Dwayne Johnson Turned Mark Kerr
The Former WWE Celebrity Reworked Bodily And Emotionally Into MME Legend Mark Kerr
To painting MMA pioneer Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson undertook one of the most intensive transformations of his profession. Forward of manufacturing, he immersed himself in MMA coaching, adopting a regimented routine that included weight work, cardio, and precise cage time with seasoned fighters (by way of ESPN).
This preparation was designed not simply to construct muscle however to seize the physicality and motion patterns of an actual elite competitor. Along side this, Johnson additionally labored with a vocal coach to adapt Kerr’s softer, extra introspective speech patterns, distancing his efficiency from his traditional commanding persona.
This vocal shift helped reinforce the emotional vulnerability on the core of Kerr’s story, offering a putting distinction to Dwayne Johnson’s earlier action-hero roles. Nonetheless, it wasn’t simply the way in which Kerr moved and sounded Johnson wanted to seize. His transformation was visible too, and this facet is one other manner The Smashing Machine shines.
A vital component of the transformation concerned prosthetic work by veteran make-up artist Kazu Hiro, whose earlier work contains Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. Over three hours of day by day software, dozens of particular person prosthetic items reshaped Johnson’s look, from cauliflower ears to sarcasm, enabling him to embody Kerr’s look with out obscuring emotional expression.
The outcomes of this layered method is nothing in need of unimaginable. Dwayne Johnson doesn’t simply put on Kerr’s physique; he inhabits it. His physique language, gait, and delicate gestures replicate an athlete who has lived beneath the relentless stress of competitors.
Past bodily mimicry, Dwayne Johnson’s efficiency channels the psychological depths of a fighter burdened by ache, habit, and the seek for identification past the cage. This layered portrayal is nearly inarguably essentially the most emotionally resonant of his profession, and has cemented Johnson as a credible actor able to way more than his traditional motion film roles.
The Smashing Machine Was Snubbed At The Oscars
Academy Awards Hopes For Dwayne Johnson Fizzled With Solely A Make-up Nomination
Going into awards season, The Smashing Machine was extensively anticipated to be a contender in a number of classes on the Academy Awards. Dwayne Johnson’s gritty, career-best efficiency and Emily Blunt’s emotionally charged flip led many pundits to foretell nominations on the Oscars. Since each Johnson and Blunt earned Golden Globe nods, optimism was working excessive.
Sadly, when the 98th Academy Award nominations had been introduced, the movie’s presence was minimal. The one Oscar nomination it obtained was for Finest Make-up and Hairstyling – particularly honoring Kazu Hiro’s prosthetics that helped Johnson disappear into the function of Mark Kerr. As deserving as Hiro is for his work, the dearth of additional nominations for The Smashing Machine falls far in need of expectations for the film’s creative achievements.
Most notably, Johnson was solely shut out of the Best Actor category regardless of being a frontrunner in early awards season discussions. Co-star Blunt additionally missed out, leaving many surprised by the Academy’s oversight.
The snub underscores a broader pattern the place critically acclaimed however underperforming field workplace movies wrestle to keep up awards momentum. Regardless of its strengths in efficiency, path, and emotional depth, The Smashing Machine merely didn’t safe the widespread institutional help needed to interrupt by means of in essentially the most aggressive classes.
Nonetheless, the make-up nomination stands as a testomony to the craft that supported the movie’s immersive world, and the way successfully Dwayne Johnson aesthetically match the role of Mark Kerr. What’s extra, the dialog created by the dearth of top-tier Oscar recognition nearly amplifies the sense that The Smashing Machine deserves a re-evaluation from audiences.
- Launch Date
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October 1, 2025
- Runtime
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123 minutes
- Director
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Benny Safdie
