The mixed martial arts fighter who was also a person

It has come out classicUntil recently, Benny Safdie co-directed feature films with his brother Josh. And, more than films, they created torrents of images and ideas that swept everything in their path. The smashing machine does not have a cinematic flow as crazy as Good time either Rough diamonds (Best film of 2020 according to ARA critics). But the fact that this time the narrative flow isn't so vehement and circulates within more recognizable margins doesn't mean the film lacks punch.

In this biography of mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock), we can clearly recognize that director with a special sympathy for characters who, faced with a situation in which they must choose between two options, always end up choosing the most self-destructive. It just so happens that this time Benny Safdie broadens the range of his films, and within his films, which until now have been more in line with alternative tastes, there's room for more viewers. The smashing machine can make the weight of a fan of Ilia Topuria's fights, a fan of The Rock (star of blockbusters and former wrestler crimping catch who is now entering a prestigious register and winning awards) and is already nostalgic for the saga Rocky.

Following, then, a somewhat formulaic pattern of stories about professional wrestlers in which private life and performances in the ring sometimes become confused, The smashing machine It also serves as a portrait of the back roads of the culture of triumph and failure (and the spectacle surrounding it) in the United States. How The fighter by Darren Aronofsky, Foxcatcher by Bennet Miller or The Iion claw Sean Durkin's Benny Safdie searches for the individual hidden behind a mountain of muscle and the personal and even vulgar drama (the obligations and dreams of a professional career as well as turbulence in the harmony of the home) in which any viewer can project themselves.