Opiniões dos críticos

'The Smashing Machine' has such strong performances from Johnson and Blunt but it lacks narrative focus and an emotional core that hinders this from being a total knockout.

Safdie supports [Johnson's] performance by making a film which sets itself apart from the glut of movies about fighters while still containing so much of what makes them compelling. In the way in which Safdie makes the film a reflection of real life's mercurial morality, "The Smashing Machine" packs a subversive punch.

Flowing on a hypnotic wave of tension and emotion The Smashing Machine takes many of the tropes of the genre and remixes them in fascinating ways. Like its protagonist, the film is laser focused on the intangibles that made Kerr a compelling individual in and out of the arena... A compelling work that often defies convention, The Smashing Machine is a revelation.

[Johnson] is rarely asked to reveal much more of the man behind the enigma, and perhaps as a result, the performance mostly feels as if it’s offering mimicry. In the end, The Smashing Machine seeks to valorize Kerr as a true pioneer of mixed martial arts... but it’s hard not to see this retelling as anything other than a means of letting Johnson make a bid for artistic credibility.

Where Safdie does push beyond the documentary is in the intimate moments it could never capture, particularly between Mark and Dawn... [But] the film’s emotional throughline feels less satisfying than the documentary’s... The Smashing Machine is sensitive, texturally rich, and technically strong. But the melodrama of Mark Kerr—the real one—was somehow more potent when we saw it unfiltered.

The removal of all of the sports biopic tentpoles leads to a pretty slack tent, and when the required third act conflicts jump into the ring, they come off hollow instead of emotional. Still, through all of it, there’s a captivating central performance, and the sense that we haven’t really seen a sports movie like this before.

Rather than turn Kerr’s opioid addiction and relationship problems into a sensationalised drama, Safdie’s sensitive script offers a great deal of sympathy... This is a thoroughly entertaining sports biopic that packs one hell of a sentimental gutpunch. It’s smashing stuff.

Though meandering and a bit tame, The Smashing Machine is nonetheless a success for all involved, and only time will tell if it receives the flowers it's undoubtedly chasing come awards season.

Safdie proves himself here, holding onto the raw, electric vision that made Good Time and Uncut Gems so propulsive, while giving it a new muscular tenderness... With The Smashing Machine, [the director] shows he can step into the ring alone and come out with his hands raised. And Dwayne Johnson finally gets to prove that even (The) Rock can cry.

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.

[The Smashing Machine] plays like an anti-Rocky... One of the main pleasures here is the way the picture turns so many of the traditional sports movie conventions on their head. Safdie’s screenplay focuses as much on Mark’s addiction to painkillers and opioids as to his exploits in the ring.

Frequently ecstatic... If there was ever any doubt that Johnson, who came from the world of pro wrestling, is a truly formidable screen performer, this picture will dispel them for good.