A24Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine has all the familiar hallmarks of Hollywood biopics, but its intensity and emotional clarity make it entirely worthwhile — to say nothing of its enrapturing and transformative lead performance. Safdie, one half of the brother duo behind gambling thriller Uncut Gems, goes solo for a film about addiction of a different sort, as wrestler-turned-action-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson brings his long-gestating passion project to life. It’s a personal re-invention for both artists, and while it may not re-invent the wheel, it most certainly bedazzles it.Johnson plays Mark Kerr, a mixed martial arts (MMA) competitor during the sport’s rise to prominence in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, i.e. before the UFC had become a global juggernaut threatening to bring its octagonal cage to the White House lawn. Hulking yet soft-spoken, Kerr is introduced to us much as he is in John Hyams’ 2002 lo-fi documentary of the same name: politely explaining the origins of his nasty black eye to a curious old woman in a doctor’s waiting room. Hyams’ doc is the structural blueprint for Safdie’s script, which lifts scenes and lines of dialogue wholesale, and occasionally apes Hyam’s scrappy, video tape cinéma vérité, but the film also imaginatively fills in the documentaries gaps, and ends up in difficult places that Hyams’ camera couldn’t go.The contradictions of the gentle giant Kerr are of great interest to Safdie, who follows him at an unobtrusive distance for the most part, before punching in for emphasis during key dramatic beats. The story follows Kerr’s trips back and forth from Japan alongside friend, trainer and co-competitor Mark Coleman (real MMA fighter Ryan Bader) for the Pride fighting tournament, a shiny new boxing-like format whose rules are still in flux. All the while, Kerr attempts to balance his career with his relationship to his eager but domineering girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), who goes beyond the genre’s standard supportive spouse in some discomforting ways.Kerr, who begins the movie undefeated, talks of winning like it’s the natural order of things — not out of some fascistic desire to dominate (in fact, he’s quite friendly with the fellas he punches), but because winning is genuinely all he knows. But of course, as any formerly “gifted” schoolchild learns when they go to college, the big pond of international fighting has bigger fish, and his first loss discombobulates his entire sense of self. For the first time, Safdie and cinematographer Maceo Bishop hold on Kerr in long, unbroken takes, as Johnson practically tries to hide from the camera, its lens drenched in his own sweat. The harsh arena lights turn these droplets kaleidoscopic, resulting in a turning point that’s as invasive as it is disorienting, kicking off a personal and professional spiral.Kerr’s addiction to fighting, and winning, are matched only by his reliance on opiate painkillers, and as much as Dawn wants to help him, his coping mechanism is to shut her out. She doesn’t take kindly to this, resulting in explosive scenes of codependent drama that are as inviting to watch as they are downright repulsive. No one in the film is truly a bad person, but Kerr and Dawn are bad for each other, and we often find them at their worst moments. But as much as they might avoid acknowledging their conflicts, Coleman’s disapproving gaze when the trio is together speaks volumes about the unhealthy dynamic at play.Benny Safdie’s cinéma vérité approach, which it lifts from the documentary that inspired it, elevates The Smashing Machine from its biopic trappings. | A24Bader is a treat to watch, practically turning Coleman — Kerr’s more well-adjusted peer — into the movie’s conscience. In signature Safdie fashion, the non-professional actor brings a lived-in realism (a common trait throughout the ensemble) to the role of a fighter on the road, and a family man who seems to live with the constant struggle of keeping conflicting aspects of his life in check, all while masking it with a smile. There’s perhaps no better pure buddy or best friend in any Hollywood film this year, even though he knows his place and when to keep his distance. Alongside Blunt, who’s as radiant as she is detestably selfish, the two supporting characters often feel like diametrically opposed collaborators whose pet project, Kerr, is the most important thing in the world to them.. Speculation has long run rampant about why the Safdie brothers parted ways, but intentionally or otherwise, we may never see a purer, more intimate expression of the collaborators’ dilemma than the silent disapproval between Coleman and Dawn.However, the aspect of The Smashing Machine sure to grab the most eyeballs is Johnson’s vulnerable performance, as a physically imposing but emotionally wounded fighter trying to keep the pieces of his life together. Johnson has spent over two decades carefully crafting a charismatic brand image between wrestling, action comedies, and tequila salesmanship, but that version of him feels like a different person altogether. His performance as Kerr is the first time he’s allowed himself to be this exposed, as a man who loves to fight, but is easily hurt by words — or by a passive-aggressive lack thereof — and whose slow-but-steady implosion makes you fall in love with him, even when he isn’t particularly pleasant to be around.The WWE superstar’s hunching posture and timid voice are mostly-accurate representations of Kerr — a large man who feels small and boyish — but Johnson avoids impersonation, and instead opts for self-excoriation. For a figure so public and globally famous, it feels like watching something we shouldn’t be seeing: an admission that this is who and what has been hiding beneath the bright smiles and celebrity façade all this time. This is who he’s been scared to be.Emily Blunt manages to give life to the supportive spouse role, but Dwayne Johnson is a revelation. | A24As Johnson takes us on this journey with him, the result is downright emotionally cleansing. While its brawls start out with wince-inducing sound design, its scenes of in-ring carnage become more palatable (and even soulful) as the film unfolds, situating us in a fighter’s mindset with subtle impact. The film’s climax, although it mirrors the documentary, feels entirely renewed in its conception of Kerr’s catharsis, as a man who — perhaps like Johnson, after his recent box office disappointments — needs to learn to lose gracefully in order to self-actualize.What makes The Smashing Machine special is that it isn’t really a celebrity biopic, despite bearing the glitzy appearance of one, and thus isn’t beholden to iconography. Kerr was never one of MMA’s greats, but he was an innovative everyman, who faced grounded struggles befitting of grimy kitchen-sink realism, despite fighting under bright lights and in front of voracious crowds. The result is an enrapturing sports drama where the very act of intimacy — of knowing oneself, and truly seeing oneself in moments of failure — is the most difficult thing in the world, and the most rewarding.The Smashing Machine opens in theaters October 3.