Dwayne Johnson not only impressed the critics in attendance at the Venice Film Festival with his heartfelt turn as UFC legend Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” he moved many as well. Can a “Rockaissance” be in order? Following up that success, A24 has unveiled a new trailer for the film, out in theaters October 3, which also stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s girlfriend and eventual wife Dawn Staples.
What impressed many in Venice was how Johnson delivers not just a more personal performance, like many blockbuster actors who go “serious,” but that, in the words of IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio it’s overall part of a movie that’s “anti-awards-bait.”
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As Lattanzio put it, reporting from the Lido, “Safdie’s first solo-directed feature after helming episodes of TV’s ‘The Curse’ and creatively breaking up with his brother Josh sounds like the stuff of awards-season bait: An actor going out of his range to play a tortured athletic soul, physically transformed in a steroidal, vein-bulged-muscles sense, on the rocky path to redemption.”
He continued, “But ‘The Smashing Machine‘ is not that, nor is it ‘The Wrestler,’ either (but that a Bruce Springsteen song also plays in this film at a moment of Mark’s rock bottom will put you in the headspace of Darren Aronofsky’s melodrama). Safdie’s film is rather a sweet duet between a remarkably unembellished Johnson and a blazingly good, blue-collar and freshly blown-out Emily Blunt as his codependent girlfriend and eventual wife Dawn Staples-Kerr. Johnson is an ideal match for Safdie and the material, bridging without sensation or cloying affect the disconnect between who Mark is in the octagon (intimidating, undefeated, all primal machismo energy) and who he is outside the cage (wounded, insecure, cauliflower-eared). All of that is to say while ‘Smashing Machine’ doesn’t play like easy awards catnip, Johnson earns a sizable position among this year’s prize-seekers.”
Critics particularly praised the chemistry between Johnson and Blunt, who channeled their real-life friendship to convey a genuine sense of ease between their characters. Johnson even went so far as to call Blunt his “best friend” in the Venice press conference for the film and suggest that she helped a lot with bringing out his more ambitious artistic instincts and desire to go deeper into a role.
A24 will release “The Smashing Machine” in theaters on October 3. Watch the new trailer below.
