The breaking machine presents the rock as if we have never seen it before

Warning: this article contains spoilers For “The Smashing Machine”.

Is the hierarchy of power in the prices of the 2026 academy about to change? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hopes, if his dramatic about Face Pivot in “The Smashing Machine” is something to pass. The hope of the price season, the writer / director Benny Safdie, represents the first stage of the extremely calculated plan of Johnson. Until recently, he was content to take advantage of his WWE Star power for a regular blockbusters channel in recent years. He helped invigorate the “Fast & Furious” franchise, served as a main man on several gender films in which he wore indistinguishable outfits from Khaki and Gray (to the point of becoming fodder for the memes), and even flirted with a staging at a time on DC and having “Black Adam”, led the world of superheroes in a new age. All this led us here: The Rock featured an A24 film of an Favitter Fav film with its views which take place downright on gold.

On the basis of the first criticisms, the own Bill Bria of the film / Film is presented here, “The Smashing Machine” seems to have been exactly what rock has ordered. Rather than playing another vaguely charismatic piece in a mounting chain of them, the role of Johnson as an artist Martial mixed Mark Kerr brings a whole new flavor of the wrestler who has become an actor in the foreground. No more all these flattering muscle combinations, Quippy’s liners and the clauses “alleged)” without losses “in his contract stipulating that he was getting out of each fight. Instead, this biopic practically forces him to put his ego on the side and to release his most vulnerable performance to date. Is it the dawn of a new era for Dwayne Johnson? What we know with certainty is that we have never seen it like that before.

For a guy who clearly spends an excessive time to organize his brand and his public image, it is no coincidence that Dwayne Johnson has chosen a role like this in “The Smashing Machine”. At some point, each major actor must decide the niche they want to fill and what type of star they want to be. On its anterior trajectory, the rock was dangerously close to being known among the mass public as the type of interpreter whose name guarantees the opposite quality … with all the respect due to the tastes of “Red One”, “Red Opinion” and “Baywatch”, of course. On his credit, however, it seems that Johnson himself saw it coming and deliberately biased away from his own comfort zone.

He could not have done it more dramatically than representing someone like Mark Kerr. On the basis of the true story of the man who was the pioneer of MMA / UFC fights as an industry, “The Smashing Machine” depicts the personal problems of the figure while he tries to make his way up of the circuit. Unlike the personality of rock WWE, full of cheeky ego and even a recent transfer in heel territory, Mark is an athlete with a soft and soft voice who keeps things in the bottle until they explode violently … either in the ring or, tragically, during his many arguments with his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt). Benny Safdie’s script, based on the 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr”, requires that Johnson plays the majority of the film in a minor key note. Although suitable for such a internalized figure, this challenge of additional actor (in addition to the prostheses and already intrusive makeup) forces Johnson to minimize several moments of gravity – a deliberate choice which obliges the public to lean and pay attention to the nuances of his performances.

It is only really during his different fights that moviegoers will remember the rock they know if: a man of such brute force who knows exactly how and when to use his physique to play the cameras.

Will this transformer transform “The Smashing Machine” will be enough to win skeptical voters and recruit them for the cause of Dwayne Johnson? It is far too early to say, because it will depend on the way the public will really react in turn and to the film as a whole. The A24, the distribution studio behind the production, obviously intends to deploy the red carpet and do everything they can to push this firmly in the conversation – the end of year release date, marketing highlighting the “prestigious drama” of the merits of history, and what is certain to be a lot of schooling behind the elite line.

What we can Let’s say, however, is that the star seems to set up a new phase of his career. Not too different from Tom Cruise, taking a well-necessary break with the films “Mission: Impossible” and taking up his roots with a next film by Alejandro Iñárritu, Johnson may hope to change the story that arose around his recent work. Known mainly among general audiences as the guy who makes the headlines that please junk food, Johnson’s pivot has something as serious and respected as a biopic says a lot about where he wants to go afterwards. He went to register to regret his accent on the continuation of the profits of the box office above all, and he even has a film by Martin Scorsese in the cards with “One Battle after another” Leonardo DiCaprio and a partner on the frequent screen Emily Blunt. Yes, we will first cross this “moana” remake live, but who says that progress must be linear?

Whatever the way “The Smashing Machine” occurs, the rock is well positioned to put, well, the rock behind it. If all is well as planned, this “wrestler who has become actor” can very well be one thing in the past. From that moment, expect Dwayne Johnson to remove a page from Dave Bautista or the game book by John Cena and continue to prove to the world that he can be more than what we expect.

“The Smashing Machine” is now playing in theaters.