The Smashing Machine Showcases The Rock Like We have By no means Seen Him Earlier than

Warning: This text incorporates spoilers for “The Smashing Machine.”

Is the hierarchy of energy within the 2026 Academy Awards about to alter? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson certain hopes so, if his dramatic about-face pivot in “The Smashing Machine” is something to go by. The awards season hopeful, from author/director Benny Safdie, represents step one in Johnson’s extraordinarily calculated plan. Up till lately, he is been content material to leverage his WWE star energy for a gradual string of blockbusters all through the final a number of years. He helped reinvigorate the “Quick & Livid” franchise, served because the main man on a number of style films through which he wore indistinguishable outfits of khaki and gray (to the purpose of turning into fodder for memes), and even flirted with staging a coup on DC and have “Black Adam” lead the superhero universe into a brand new age. All of this has led us right here: The Rock starring in an A24 film from a Movie Twitter fav together with his sights set squarely on gold.

Based mostly on early critiques, as /Movie’s personal Invoice Bria laid out right here, “The Smashing Machine” seems to have been simply what The Rock ordered. Fairly than enjoying one more vaguely charismatic hunk in an meeting line of them, Johnson’s function as blended martial artist Mark Kerr brings an entire new taste of the wrestler-turned-actor to the forefront. Gone are all these flattering muscle fits, quippy one-liners, and (alleged) “no-lose” clauses in his contract stipulating that he come out on prime of each struggle. As an alternative, this biopic virtually forces him to place his ego to the aspect and unleash his most weak efficiency but. Is that this the daybreak of a brand new period for Dwayne Johnson? That is still to be seen. For now, all we all know for certain is that we have by no means seen him fairly like this earlier than.

For a man who clearly spends an inordinate period of time on curating his model and public picture, it is no coincidence that Dwayne Johnson selected a job like this in “The Smashing Machine.” At a sure level, each main actor should resolve what area of interest they want to fill and what sort of star they wish to be. On his prior trajectory, The Rock was operating dangerously near being recognized amongst mass audiences because the sort of performer whose identify ensures the reverse of high quality … with all due respect to the likes of “Pink One,” “Pink Discover,” and “Baywatch,” in fact. To his credit score, nonetheless, it seems that Johnson himself noticed this coming and purposefully skewed far exterior of his personal consolation zone.

He could not have achieved so extra dramatically than by portraying somebody like Mark Kerr. Based mostly on the true story of the person who pioneered MMA/UFC combating as an business, “The Smashing Machine” depicts the determine’s private troubles as he makes an attempt to struggle his approach to the very prime of the circuit. Not like The Rock’s WWE persona, stuffed with brash ego and even a latest flip into heel territory, Mark is a soft-spoken and mild-mannered athlete who retains issues bottled up inside till they violently explode out of him … both within the ring or, tragically, throughout his many arguments with girlfriend Daybreak (Emily Blunt). Benny Safdie’s script, primarily based on the 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Occasions of Excessive Fighter Mark Kerr,” requires that Johnson play the vast majority of the movie in a minor-key be aware. Though becoming for such an internalized determine, this extra appearing problem (on prime of the already-intrusive prosthetics and make-up) forces Johnson to underplay a number of moments of gravitas — a deliberate alternative that compels audiences to truly lean in and take note of the nuances of his efficiency.

It is actually solely throughout his varied fights that moviegoers can be reminded of The Rock they’re so aware of: a person of such brute-force power who is aware of precisely how and when to make use of his physicality to play to the cameras.

Will this transformative flip in “The Smashing Machine” be sufficient to win over skeptical voters and recruit them to the Dwayne Johnson trigger? It is too early to say, as a lot of this can rely on how audiences truly reply to his flip and the film total. A24, the distribution studio behind the manufacturing, clearly intends on rolling out the crimson carpet and doing every thing they will to push this firmly into the dialog — the end-of-year launch date, the advertising highlighting the “status drama” deserves of the story, and what’s certain to be loads of behind-the-scenes schmoozing on the a part of Johnson are all strategic facets to nudge this throughout the end line.

What we can say, nonetheless, is that the star seems to be establishing a brand new part of his profession. Not too dissimilar from Tom Cruise taking a much-needed break from the “Mission: Not possible” films and getting again to his roots with an upcoming Alejandro Iñárritu movie, Johnson could also be hoping to alter the narrative that has cropped up round his latest work. Recognized primarily amongst basic audiences because the man who headlines crowd-pleasing junk meals fare, Johnson’s pivot to one thing as severe and revered as a biopic speaks volumes about the place he desires to go subsequent. He is gone on document regretting his emphasis on chasing field workplace income above all else, and he even has a Martin Scorsese movie within the playing cards co-starring “One Battle After One other” lead Leonardo DiCaprio and frequent display accomplice Emily Blunt. Sure, we’ll have get by that live-action “Moana” remake first, however who says progress must be linear?

No matter how “The Smashing Machine” performs, The Rock is positioned properly to place, properly, The Rock behind him. Ought to all go in line with plan, that pesky “wrestler-turned-actor” caveat might very properly be a factor of the previous. From this level onwards, count on Dwayne Johnson to take a web page out of Dave Bautista or John Cena’s playbook and proceed proving to the world that he could be greater than what we have come to count on.

“The Smashing Machine” is now enjoying in theaters.