The Smashing Machine, distributed by A24 and written and directed by Benny Safdie, has two goals. It is a vehicle for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to flex different acting muscles than usual by playing a ...

The Smashing Machine chronicles a key stretch of years in the life of wrestler-turned-mixed martial artist Mark Kerr (Johnson), as he leaps from doing foreign MMA tournaments to becoming one of the ...

The sports biopic is among the most over-saturated genres, and one that's particularly tricky to get right. It's a delicate dance to nail the right mix of realism and drama to craft a story that's ...

Benny Safdie wants to challenge our expectations of the traditional sports movie. His first solo directorial outing without his brother Josh, “The Smashing Machine” is a biopic that zigs when you ...

Opinions are the author’s alone and not endorsed by 2 NEWS and/or Nexstar Media Group. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — In “The Smashing Machine,” we learn many things but one stands out more than the rest: ...

Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” isn’t what you think it is, especially if you think it’s a movie about a British guy who thinks his typewriter is the tops. “The Smashing Machine” would seem to ...

“I just don’t want to fight,” Mark Kerr pleads to his girlfriend, Dawn Staples, during one of many domestic quarrels in “The Smashing Machine,” a granular if not particularly gritty drama set in the ...

Welcome to the world of Mark Kerr. Welcome to a world of pain. He inflicts it. He absorbs it. He’s defined by it in “The Smashing Machine.” He’s a mountain of a man. Hulking. Battered. Tattered. On an ...

Benny Safdie wants to challenge our expectations of the traditional sports movie. His first solo directorial outing without his brother Josh, “The Smashing Machine” is a biopic that zigs when you ...

This image released by A24 shows Dwayne Johnson in a scene from "The Smashing Machine." (Eric Zachanowich/A24 via AP) Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” isn’t what you think it is, especially if ...