“We, as humans, sometimes, we lose. What would that feel like?” This is the question put to Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) by a Japanese journalist at the beginning of The Smashing Machine . At the time of the interview, the mixed martial artist is undefeated, and the concept of losing seems alien to him. Flummoxed, he doesn’t have an answer.

The rest of the movie provides that answer. Set between 1997 and 2000, during the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s wild pioneer years — when rules such as “no eye-gouging” were gradually introduced — it is a story of loss, and learning to lose. It begins with Kerr’s first professional fight, and ends with him broken, rebuilt, and broken again, courtesy of an extraordinary performance from Johnson.

Benny Safdie presents a deeply human portrait of a d

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