it is depressing to start a review like this, but in my history of needing to chase down audio description for screeners, it is a rarity for me to encounter a studio including audio description without me asking for it. this means that anyone, not just me, has the access. let’s be honest, in all the considering happening out there, people are bound to be watching screeners with family, and that family might be low vision or blind, or the individual considering the film might be, as it is fully possible to be members of these guilds and be blind. there are so many positives to sending it in, without people begging for it. So, thanks A24. This has audio description narrated by William Michael Redman, who while being one of my favorite narrators in terms of horror/action/thriller, would not have been my first choice for a true story whose core theme is addiction. It needs a lighter, more passive touch, and one of the things I love about redman is that his presence is felt without ever being performative. it is such a distinct voice, I don’t need to stay to the end. I know who it is.

That being said, what else do we tackle in this sports biopic that doesn’t conform to traditional biopic tropes? Dwayne Johnson has gotten the best reviews of his career for his portrayal of Mark Kerr, one of the first to help popularize mixed martial arts tournaments. Some write his performance off as easy, because he’s well cast, but simply being well cast shouldn’t preclude you from a nomination. Johnson and Kerr are quite similar, and Johnson was clearly ready for the physical stuff, but can he handle the emotional baggage? yes. Mark is shown as being almost universally a likeable fellow, which is the persona the artist formerly known as The Rock has been sending out to the world for years. he avoids playing the bad guy, or the villain, because the hero is charming, approachable, and everything Johnson wants to be remembered for. If he fails to get the Oscar nomination here, it won’t be because he’s bad, but rather the perception that ease was on his side, like it was for Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl. in both instances, their critics were wrong. these are not their lives.

Johnson has never admitted to being addicted to painkillers the way we see Mark Kerr in this, and having to 180 himself back from the doldrums. Honestly, part of this being an atypical biopic is that it doesn’t end with him winning some grand championship, rather taking the page from Rocky, in that being in the ring to begin with was more than half the battle. After rebounding from addiction, coming close feels like a victory.

For those wondering just how approximate Johnson is here, there’s footage of the real life Kerr in the film, and Johnson seems to nail it. I’ve heard he’s under quite a bit of prosthetics, but that’s one factor lost mostly on blind audiences. the comparison project, being able to see how close someone looks like to someone else on film is just beyond our reach. we can ask friends, but that’s their opinion. Actors can nail the voice, but look nothing like the person. even if you are a blind person who loves molesting faces, you can’t do that with a screen. The textile effort is futile. So, it comes down to other factors, all of which he nails anyway.

I was also really impressed with Ryan Bador, who plays Mark Coleman, another MMA fighter and friend. He’s also really believable in his role, and I appreciated what he brought to the table. he also comes from the same general background as Johnson, and therefore adds a level of reality that other actors can’t naturally tap into. it will be one of the great unsung supporting roles of the year.

then we have Emily Blunt. I have to talk about her eventually, as I can’t pretend she doesn’t exist. to her credit, she is not bad of her own accord, but rather her role has shat all over the Bechdel test. For being the second largest role in the film, she is a character who is whatever Kerr needs her to be, and ceases to be a real person, despite actually being one. sometimes, we get amalgamations or approximations of other characters, who aren’t directly reflective of a person, but Dawn Staples is a real person. She and Mark go on to have a kid together. I learned nothing about her, what she wants, her hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes. She seems to exist only to serve or mirror Mark Kerr, and later be a reflection of the person he used to be, and now she’s the one who needs the help. there’s nothing unique or consistent about her portrayal, and her reasonings vary from scene to scene. She If you were to focus the film on her, and remove scenes where she isn’t in them, she would be diagnosed with a personality disorder. She’s so poorly written, I’m shocked Emily Blunt didn’t flag it. And, it shows me what Benny Safdi thinks of female co-leads when Josh isn’t around.

Aside from his general inability to find a coherency in a female character, Safdi does a nice job directing a biopic that functions more as an addiction drama than an education on who Mark Kerr is. we meet him in the ring, we leave him in the ring. did he have a childhood? siblings? Parents? when did he decide to do MMA? the Smashing Machine doesn’t rope in what every other biopic does, and flood you full of training montages. It is a story about meeting Mark where he is, watching him come to terms with his addiction to painkillers, and finding a path to the other side, all while Emily Blunt portrays a sounding board so he isn’t ever talking to himself.

If you think I’m being hard on Safdi over Blunt, I encourage you to rewatch creed, and see how Tessa Thompson’s character is actually given a personality separate than that of Adonis, and how we know so much more about who she is even though she doesn’t exist, and this isn’t her film. Blunt’s Dawn does exist, and was really a part of all this, but Safdi seems to just not care.

the Smashing Machine is a crash course on dramatic depth from Dwayne Johnson, who brings a surprising amount of vulnerability he rarely is asked to use. Far and away his best performance. I just wish I could say the same about his co-star.

Fresh: Final grade: 7.7/10