Blazy or Lazy: ‘The Smashing Machine’ Trailer

BREAKDOWN

Story Hook: You know what he did. Or maybe you don’t. Based on this snippet, The Smashing Machine looks ready to toss the truth of Mark Kerr’s wrongdoings—and his sorrow—into the ring. It’s a dramatic bout of love, career and real-life KOs.

Visual Impact: Set in the late ’90s, this film feels caught on film or VHS with its grainy texture. It captures the communal feel of the era—the fashions, the pastimes, the cadence of speech—and readily bears Safdie’s mark: visually and sentimentally immersive. There’s also digital manipulation of Johnson’s face to resemble Kerr, and it’s both transformative and jarring—but not distracting. It sits in that uncanny space where performance and technology blur, heightening the emotional tension rather than pulling us out.

Performance Promises: You can’t go wrong with Emily Blunt and right from that first frame, it’s clear she’s putting her foot in this one. But the irony rests with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His long action-hero career was built on the back of his sports legacy, yet it’s the return to that same world that seems to usher him into his most honest, dramatic work yet. Here, he’s not just an icon. He’s stepping into the cage as a true thespian.

Pertinents: Fresh off writer-director Benny Safdie’s Silver Lion Best Director Award win, The Smashing Machine is a 2-hour, 3-minute sports biopic starring Dwayne Johnson, Academy Award-nominee Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk.

Verdict: The trailer hits with bruising promise—less about violence, more about vulnerability. If the full film matches the trailer’s emotional range, The Smashing Machine might not just redeem a character—it might rewrite a career. Dwayne Johnson has played larger-than-life for decades, but this could be the first time he plays soul-deep real. And that? That’s worth going artist-to-audience, toe-to-toe in the squared circle.