The Smashing Machine (15)

Benny Safdie brings a raw, unfiltered edge to this bracingly authentic portrait of mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr.

Shot with a fly-on-the-wall intensity, it strips away the glamour of sports biopics to reveal the quiet despair and resilience behind the blows.

Dwayne Johnson gives a career-best performance as Kerr, capturing both his physical dominance and emotional fragility. Set between 1997 and 2000, the film follows Kerr’s rise to MMA superstardom, his friendship with fellow fighter Mark Coleman, and his battle with addiction as his body and personal life begin to unravel. Emily Blunt is superb as Dawn, his volatile partner, their relationship rendered with a bruising honesty that echoes well beyond the ring.

In his first solo feature, Safdie’s direction is meticulous and unsentimental, favouring grounded detail over dramatisation, almost cinéma-vérité in practice. The fights are brutal but never glorified, grounded in pain, exhaustion and survival. What emerges is less a sports movie than an exploration of identity, endurance and the price of control. A tough and unflinching character study that champions the idea that real strength has little to do with victory.