(2.5 stars)

“The Smashing Machine” is a strange one: a bio-drama about the emotional sensitivities of a professional fighter. Starring Dwayne Johnson, no less, and brought to us by writer-director Benny Safdie, half of the Safdie brothers team that has made such itchy, electrifying films as “Good Time” (2017) and “Uncut Gems” (2019).

Those movies offered newly raw sides of their stars, Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler respectively, and, in a less volatile way, “The Smashing Machine” shows a different facet of the Rock. I’m not sure anyone asked for this movie, but I’m not unhappy it’s here.

Johnson plays Mark Kerr, the competitive wrestler who became one of the breakout stars of mixed martial arts as that sport evolved in the late 1990s. Yet “The Smashing Machine” avoids fight-movie cl

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