Venice Film Festival 2025, review movie The Smashing Machine

The Smashing Machine, based on a true story

The Smashing Machine aims to be a tribute to the pioneers of wrestling sports, but above all, it represents an intimate story, a narrative of descents and ascents as occurs in the existence of most people. Life metaphors that utilize sports always seem current, apt. They tell of mistakes, falls, companions, passions, people. In The Smashing Machine, the direction focuses on telling the life of Mark Kerr who, with his friend and rival Mark Coleman, established the pioneering of professional wrestling competitions and violent combat. A story of respect between fighters, but also of difficulties in romantic relationships, the fall into opioid dependency to endure pain, defeat and rebirth not only in the ring but also in the cohabitation, albeit difficult, with his partner authentically portrayed by Emily Blunt.

Visually powerful, The Smashing Machine develops a chronicle of the fundamental stages in Mark Kerr's life, with direction that attempts to balance the narrative between career, relationship with his partner, friendships, in a complex dynamic in which Mark Kerr himself seems to have had to fight to bring equilibrium to his own existence.