ROCK RINGS CHANGES

Benny Safdie's 'The Smashing Machine' has made Dwayne Johnson, its leading man, an unexpected Oscar contender. But it's also a clever bit of career course correction for the typically commercially minded star

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Dwayne Johnson is a bighearted, approachable Hollywood star who could snap you like a twig without so much as working up a sweat. He almost certainly wouldn't do it because the man is a mensch, both on-camera and off, but there is always the chance that he might, if he properly lost his rag and momentarily saw red. He knows it and we know it and this tense shared understanding may be part of his appeal.

In Johnson’s new film, The Smashing Machine, the 53-year-old actor portrays MMA fighter Mark Kerr, “255 pounds of pure muscle”, who is working to wean himself off an addiction to opioids. At home, newly sober, Kerr notes that his girlfriend Dawn (played by Emily Blunt) has for some reason put semi-skimmed milk in his smoothie. It’s no big deal, he assures her, he simply assumed she would know he prefers whole milk, just as he assumed she would remember to prune his favourite cactus and to fish those disgusting leaves out of the pool.

The Smashing Machine, for the record, contains a number of noisy MMA contests. None, though, are quite as charged and gruelling as the scenes inside Kerr’s house. The more Kerr shrugs and smiles, the more the tension levels ramp up, gently hinting at what might happen next. Benny Safdie’s sports drama teases violence the way a 1930s romcom teases sex.

The Smashing Machine isn’t perfect, but it’s an excellent acting showcase, fitting a bold new frame around its A-list star and allowing him plenty of room to find his range.

Johnson’s portrayal of Kerr has already been tipped as an Oscar contender (disclaimer: at this stage of the race, every half-decent performance gets tipped as an Oscar contender). It also provides a welcome counterweight to such feelgood entertainments as Jungle Cruise (2021) and