The Smashing Machine (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM.

READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It is so hard to separate the lives you have at work and at home because not knowing the difference at some point is gonna blow up exponentially.


PLOT


Based on the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name, 2025's The Smashing Machine follows the life of Mark Kerr who has been identified as a pioneer to mixed martial arts due to debuting in the youthful years of Ultimate Fighting Championship. To remain financially stable and afford his opioid addiction, he would work in Japan for the division PRIDE. However, he would have a strain in his relationship with his girlfriend Dawn Staples as she always felt unappreciated when afar or together. That said strain would worsen over the devastation he'd have over his first no contest, the first time he would not win an official fight in his career. By the time he returned home to the United States, he would suffer an overdose and would be encouraged by close friend Mark Coleman to go to rehab. Even after making an important change did that make things better between him and Dawn as she didn't take his sobriety serious and would always go out to drink with local friends. With her not wanting to make changes of her own, she leaves him before he starts preparing for the 2000 Pride Grand Prix, in which Coleman is also prepping for. Early into the training phases by Bas Rutten, Kerr would actually save him with painkillers when having a tendonitis episode. Unsurprisingly, Mark would leave camp early to the dismay of Rutten when he rekindles things with Dawn. Days before taking off, the couple tries to have a party but before guests could ever show up, they have their biggest argument where Kerr calls out her hedonistic habits and he decides to break up with her. Heartbroken, Dawn tries to kill herself with his gun and a razor blade, but he stops her both times and calls the police on her for her safety. On the day of the tournament does he get distracted thinking about her and suffers his first official loss. As he gets stitched up following his fight, Coleman wins the tournament. Showing Kerr in the 2025 present does the film end in an epilogue confirming he did marry Dawn after the tournament and have a son with her named Bryce, but would soon divorce after 2015 (He would re-marry to Franci Alberding in 2023).


THOUGHTS


I was stunned discovering Josh & Benny Safdie would go their separate ways as filmmakers, but I chose to later welcome it because that just means they got their own stories to tell. While the former got to do Marty Supreme, the latter got the gall to remake a documentary and still make it authentic, coming to show he’s an unusual genius in his own way. Mixed martial arts is definitely a different realm compared to pro wrestling, but it doesn’t change the common grit that is expressed, especially when UFC used to be a sports brand that was figuring itself out youthfully before there were enough rules to better understand it. Looking back, I do think Benny pulled off the aspect of dominance the sport is known for through his editing and its Maceo Bishop’s cinematography that showed how big & small the world can feel when being an athlete. It is ironic that a pro wrestler would play an mma legend, but the lines did feel align for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to do so since he is a fan of the sport and claimed to consider jumping ship before sticking to the career path fans appreciate him for. Nevertheless, Johnson has always had a few grounded performances to show he’s more than a formulaic action star. Thanks to impressive makeup, he’s able to become Mark Kerr inside and out. Seeing him getting to portray an athlete at a  vulnerable point in life was surreal because it’s not like you see the actor cry in his movies before. Hell, we’ve never seen him do so after his own matches as a wrestler. Having said that, seeing that said complexity from him was able to nail the story’s lesson that there is always a cost when it comes to relentless ambition being mixed with obsession and accepting the reality that the true strength is accepting your flaws. Kerr was someone who wanted to be invincible in his career and couldn’t help to think drugging himself up would let him stay at the top until one overdose proved him wrong. Although that was what it took for him to take better care of himself, it wasn’t the only thing he needed to cut ties with. Emily Blunt is always a forced to be reckoned with no matter the size of the role and it’s no exception as Dawn. Her chemistry was very fluent when first working with Johnson on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, and it excels to the point here where they score Golden Globe nominations together. It’s quite deserving on her end too because we get to see that Dawn was someone who struggled to change for someone she cared about and didn’t want to forget whatever good came from the past. She meant alot to Kerr at the time because he wasn’t in touch with his family at the time who didn’t approve of his career, so of course he didn’t want to lose the joy she gave him when they weren’t arguing. She just wanted to be appreciated and neither really knew how to meet in the middle when it came to making changes. When Kerr put his foot down, she felt betrayed thus feeling the need to do the unnecessary. Despite accepting he wasn’t invincible, it sadly wasn’t enough to save whatever good they left hence the divorce. While breaking up sucks, it definitely was for the best since they both realized they didn’t want to be in a circle of misery. And while it may seem was always alone when not with Dawn, that wasn’t completely true since he gained friends through his career. While it was cool to see Bas Rutten play himself, it was even cooler for mma veteran Ryan Bader to a fellow legend that is Mark Coleman. There is a big change from the documentary where he visited Kerr at the hospital instead of old family friends, the theme remained intact that those who care the most are those who won’t hesitate telling the truth. With that being said, it was even sweet him win the tournament in honor of his friend by beating Igor Vovchanchyn (Oleksandr Usyk), the fighter who caused the no contest with Kerr by using illegal knee strikes. In short, 2025’s The Smashing Machine is an impressive sports biopic that teaches the temporary feeling of glory and the open possibility of solace. If those are the kind of movies you prefer, check this out when you can.