They say that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson only knows how to play himself in movies; this weekend he played the role he was born for.

“The Smashing Machine” takes place between years 1997 and 2000, and it focuses on the life of early UFC fighter Mark Kerr as he learns how to lose control.

A24 Films is known for making popular horror movies like “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” This movie, directed by Benny Safdie, broke from that mold, but the tension left the audience feel right at home.

In the late 90s, Mark was proud of how he never lost a fight and didn’t see defeat as something worth considering. Very early on into the movie, Mark gets savagely beaten and has to sit with defeat for the first time in his career. He starts using opioids to numb his pain and between the fights he is fighting with Dawn Staple, his partner, at home. 

There’s something poetic that I love about hiring Johnson at the one of lowest point in his acting career to play a wrestler on drugs who doesn’t allow himself to lose as someone who is also at the lowest point in his career.

Throughout the film, they use a handheld camera to zoom in and out on characters, which helps build tension to simulate the isolation of a man who refuses to be vulnerable. The sound direction was intense. During moments when Mark felt alone, they played an echoing saxophone, and when he was losing control of his life, a rhythmic ring faded in and out throughout these scenes. 

This soundtrack builds an anxiety that sits with you even after the movie. These two aspects alone made me dread whatever was going to happen next. Right before the lowest point in the story, the camera zooms in on Mark, his massive figure suffocates the scene, and you are just waiting for him to fly off the handle and crush someone. 

“The Smashing Machine” is great as a story that forwards development of the conversation on toxic masculinity past the point of just saying that trying to be invincible is bad.  We see a real-life person get pushed past their breaking point within the narrative story of Mark, and again in the non-narrative with Johnson.

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