The Smashing Machine · reception & legacy

How The Smashing Machine has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Premiered at Venice 2025 to a huge tearful ovation and instant Oscar-frontrunner buzz for Dwayne Johnson, then face-planted at the box office with one of the worst wide-release openings of his career — the awards narrative deflated almost as fast as it inflated.

What's debated

The endless debate: is Johnson's transformation a genuinely great performance trapped in a deliberately muted, undramatic movie, or does the film's restraint prove the hype was for the stunt casting rather than the film?

Its footprint

The unrecognizable-Rock-in-prosthetics stills and the clip of Johnson crying through the Venice standing ovation did more cultural rounds than the film itself — it became shorthand for the 'movie star begs to be taken seriously' arc.

Where it stands

Too new for a settled place, but among cinephiles it's already fixed as Exhibit A in the Safdie-brothers-split discourse — Benny's solo statement, endlessly compared against whatever Josh does without him.

Named by the director

Influences Benny Safdie has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr (2002) — Safdie repeatedly cited John Hyams's HBO documentary as both the source and the stylistic template — he wanted his film to carry the same fly-on-the-wall documentary feel.