The Smashing Machine
A24 | Release Date: October 3, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 56 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
20
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJan 25, 2026
It strives as hard for authenticity as its protagonist does to remain relevant; the strain shows. Read full review
60
The TimesTom ShoneOct 3, 2025
The true naked aggression of Raging Bull seems beyond the reach of Johnson, or of this rather sweet-natured film. Instead it’s Gently Engaging Bull. Read full review
60
Radio TimesJames MottramOct 3, 2025
Johnson, looking radically different under a cropped black wig, takes this opportunity and wrestles with it. Not since his work for Michael Bay in Pain & Gain has he done anything this out of his comfort zone. Read full review
60
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellOct 3, 2025
The emotional payoff of the film isn’t so much about triumph, but resilience. And the reality of never knowing how being yourself inspires others, even long after it might seem the opportunity to do so has passed. Read full review
60
The RevealKeith PhippsOct 2, 2025
Adhering to Kerr’s real-life story allows Safdie to skirt clichés, but it’s really only Johnson’s memorable characterization that suggests Kerr’s story had to be told. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensSep 29, 2025
Benny Safdie’s first solo film, to its credit, explores different psychological territory. Rather than entrapping us in Mark’s roiling brain, he seems to be purposely walling us off from both the character’s and the actor’s interiority. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 1, 2025
The film does not really permit the various emotional crises and issues to supersede the importance of fighting all that much, and the fighting itself is not transformed or transfigured in the drama. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 3, 2025
Everything Safdie, Johnson, and Blunt do to conjure up this time and place is a technical achievement, but it never goes past that to a truly involving sports story. The Smashing Machine is sadly not a knockout. Call it a split decision instead. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerOct 3, 2025
Safdie splits the difference, striving to replicate the gritty, in-the-moment documentary feel of the source movie he clearly admires, and coat it in the triple-A Hollywood sheen befitting this kind of serious star vehicle. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneRichard LawsonOct 2, 2025
Safdie is so determined to keep his film at a low simmer that one occasionally wonders if he’s turned the stove on at all. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 2, 2025
Only Johnson’s committed, precise, and vigorous performance suggests the power that inherently surges through the story and that the movie leaves nearly untapped. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonOct 2, 2025
Johnson’s performance is the magnetic center of the film, and unless you’re a huge fan of watching this kind of fighting, it’s also the whole reason to watch the movie. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMark HansonSep 14, 2025
Despite the retro vérité aesthetic that Benny Safdie employs to give Mark Kerr’s story a stylish new coat of paint, all that his version ultimately does is whip up a feeling of déjà vu. Read full review
50
LooperReuben BaronSep 11, 2025
The meta-narrative of where The Smashing Machine fits into Johnson's career is more interesting than the film itself, which I found a bit of a bore. Johnson's performance is good enough, and Emily Blunt is truly transformative as Kerr's unstable wife Dawn Staples, but neither get that much to do beyond repeat the same sort of fights (physical or verbal) over the course of two hours in a film that fails to justify why we should be so interested. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 9, 2025
Making mixed martial arts — described in the film as “the bloodiest and the goriest sport you’ve ever seen” — tame and lackluster is a challenge. But director Benny Safdie is up to the task. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 9, 2025
With nothing lurking beneath his character’s brawny exterior, and even less to his up-and-down tale, Johnson proves merely an adequate contender in his bid for dramatic credibility. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonOct 6, 2025
Having stripped away most of the documentary’s narration and sit-down interviews with Kerr’s family and friends, the film barely explores anyone’s psychology — and Blunt’s railroaded Dawn loses her chance to speak for herself. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithOct 3, 2025
Despite the surface Mr. Safdie has designed—hand-held cameras, unglamorous sets, closeups of people in misery—The Smashing Machine is notably reluctant to go deep. Read full review
40
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannSep 11, 2025
Its best moments aren't in the octagon — they're in the quiet moments when Johnson's Kerr is talking to an interviewer backstage or when Dawn and Mark are exchanging barbs in between affections in their cozy Arizona home. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherSep 1, 2025
It’s all too obvious that The Smashing Machine has been conceived, among other things, as another Safdie-branded career boost for a pair of charming, charismatic actors who could do with a dash of Oscar magic. It’s just a shame that their film is a fugazi. Read full review
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