Dwayne Johnson , Emily Blunt and Benny Safdie unveiled the latter’s first solo directorial feature, The Smashing Machine , on Monday at the Venice Film Festival. The story of legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr received a 15 1/12-minute ovation after its world premiere screening.

Johnson, in Venice for the first time, plays Kerr in the A24 wrestling drama that centers on an icon from the no-holds-barred era of the UFC as he struggles with addiction, winning, love and friendship at the peak of his career. Blunt plays Kerr’s girlfriend, Dawn Staples, with Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk rounding out the cast.

In his review, Deadline’s Damon Wise wrote that “Johnson owns the whole thing with his truly remarkable work as fighter Mark Kerr, disappearing so fully underneath Ka

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