by admin | Oct 1, 2025 | Articles, Moviephone Articles
Dwayne Johnson stars in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
Opening in theaters October 3 is ‘The Smashing Machine,’ directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk, and Satoshi Ishii.
“The unforgettable true story of a UFC legend.”
Related Article: Dwayne Johnson and Director Benny Safdie Teaming Up for ‘Lizard Music’
Initial Thoughts
Dwayne Johnson in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
Not nearly as pleasurably anxiety-inducing as his previous films with brother Josh, Benny Safdie’s solo directing debut finds the filmmaker enabling star Dwayne Johnson’s push into the realm of ‘serious actor’ – and on that level, ‘The Smashing Machine’ is a success. The Rock rises to the occasion here with his measured, compelling, and complex portrayal of real-life UFC fighter Mark Kerr, showing vulnerability and humanity that he has largely not explored in his action-heavy resume to date.
As a film overall, ‘The Smashing Machine’ – based extensively on the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name – is less effective. It lacks context for Kerr’s story, which may leave viewers not familiar with the UFC or MMA bewildered, and it’s episodic in nature, weaving the highs and lows of Kerr’s career from 1997 to 2000 around his fraught, co-dependent relationship with girlfriend (and eventual wife, then ex-wife) Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). Take away Johnson’s absorbing performance, and it’s a standard sports biopic with a weirdly muted energy.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Director Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson and on the set of ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
Safdie seems to take a lot of incidents and even lines of dialogue from ‘The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,’ the HBO documentary, and his tendency to film in a cinema-verité style brings this film even closer aesthetically to the 2002 doc. The main difference, of course, is that this version features Dwayne Johnson as Kerr, and while we don’t get a lot of backstory on either him or his chosen field, we are nevertheless drawn into his struggle.
Kerr fights on several fronts even when he’s not in the ring. He’s a soft-spoken, gentle, kind man with a vulnerable center – he won’t even go on certain amusement park rides because they’ll hurt his ‘tummy’ – yet he’s also possessed of a deep inner rage that will explode out of nowhere and result in a bedroom door smashed to splinters on the floor. He doesn’t know how to handle defeat because he’s ‘never lost,’ even saying so in an interview before a match in Japan (where he frequently fought). Yet this is also a man who grudgingly realizes that he can’t win all the time, a realization borne out in the film’s final scenes.
Opioids and Dawn are what Kerr battles the most, the former for the pain and wear of his profession and the latter for the pain and wear of co-dependency. In several instances, Dawn comes out into their living room to find him sitting in a stupor, staring at the TV. She’s no angel herself when it comes to substances, with Kerr stunned late in the film when she refuses to stay away from the goodies herself in support of his emergence from rehab. ‘You’re no fun anymore!’ she shrieks at him with almost deliberate cruelty, despite Kerr’s earlier descent into addiction being nothing less than harrowing.
(L to R) Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and director Benny Safdie on the set of ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
The brawls inside the ring are less emotionally fraught but more physically brutal. Boxing may be the ‘sweet science,’ but UFC fighting is frankly nothing less than barbaric. Yet the fighters themselves are respectful to each other outside the ring, even friends, which provides its own touching moments.
Safdie shoots all this, as mentioned earlier, in a somewhat detached documentary style, but the compilation of incidents from Kerr’s life and career never take on an organic momentum of their own. That may be Safdie in part trying to avoid the usual rise-fall-return of most sports biopics (and biopics in general), which is commendable. But he still can’t avoid a number of the tropes and the film almost fights itself, trying to show a documentary restraint yet not quite reaching any real emotional heights – except in Johnson’s raw performance.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt star in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
‘Raw’ is really the right word for Dwayne Johnson’s performance (which does bring to mind the Safdies’ reinvention of Adam Sandler in ‘Uncut Gems’), and fans may be unnerved to see him sobbing at several points in the film. Wearing prosthetics to bury himself more in the role, Johnson visibly digs deep and delivers, even if the viewer is aware that he’s also thinking about his award-season run.
Emily Blunt’s Dawn Staples is a problematic and not especially sympathetic character; while Blunt throws herself into the part (their biggest fight, climaxing in a bathroom, is intense and even frightening), the character is difficult because she’s either subservient to Kerr or selfishly manipulative toward him. Dawn is both exasperating and the typical ‘girlfriend/wife’ we see in sports biopics, but the movie never quite burrows under her skin.
Much of the rest of the film – in keeping with Safdie’s seeming desire to replicate as much of the documentary as possible – is cast with real people from the world of MMA and UFC playing either themselves or fictionalized versions of other real people. Ryan Bader in particular is quite good as Kerr’s former friend Mark Coleman, bringing sensitivity, decency, and honesty to a character whose loyalty Kerr constantly tests.
Final Thoughts
Dwayne Johnson stars in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
As we said at the top of this review, the main focus of ‘The Smashing Machine’ – Dwayne Johnson’s transformative performance – is what works best. Which is a good thing, both for him and the movie, although no doubt debates will rage over whether this is a shameless bid for awards recognition from an actor whose chops – like those of fellow wrestlers-turned-actors John Cena and Dave Bautista – have not always been taken seriously.
Still, Johnson does step up, although in the end ‘The Smashing Machine’ itself is serviceable, occasionally fascinating, and intermittently moving. We’re not sure what the film says in the end: Mark Kerr was a UFC and MMA pioneer before they became cultural behemoths, and in a sense he was passed by as a result. But since that has been chronicled already in a documentary, does a narrative version have a point? That’s the barrier ‘The Smashing Machine’ struggles to break through.
‘The Smashing Machine’ receives a score of 75 out of 100.
(L to R) Director Benny Safdie, Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson on the set of ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
What is the plot of ‘The Smashing Machine’?
Legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) battles addiction, injuries, and other challenges to his career, while also entwined in a dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt).
Who is in the cast of ‘The Smashing Machine’?
Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr
Emily Blunt as Dawn Staples
Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman
Bas Rutten as himself
Oleksandr Usyk as Igor Vovchanchyn
Lyndsey Gavin as Elizabeth Coleman
Satoshi Ishii as Enson Inoue
Dwayne Johnson stars in ‘The Smashing Machine’. Photo: A24.
List of Dwayne Johnson Movies:
Buy Tickets: ‘The Smashing Machine’ Movie ShowtimesBuy Dwayne Johnson Movies On Amazon
by admin | Oct 1, 2025 | Moviephone News, News
Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
Opening in select theaters and on digital October 3rd is the new horror satire ‘Shell’, which was directed by Max Minghella (‘The Social Network’) and stars Elizabeth Moss (‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘The Invisible Man’), Kate Hudson (‘Almost Famous’), and Kaia Gerber (‘Saturday Night’).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Elisabeth Moss about her work on ‘Shell’, her first reaction to the screenplay, her character’s arc, the challenges of being an actress in Hollywood, why she thinks this is one of Kate Hudson’s best performances and what it was like being directed by her friend Max Minghella.
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Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of this character that you were excited to explore on screen?
Elisabeth Moss: I thought the script was so fantastic. Max sent it to me after I literally texted him and said, “When are you going to ask me to do a movie with you?” So, I basically shamelessly asked for a job. He sent me the script that he had been thinking about sending to me, but he was worried I wouldn’t like it, and then I’d have to say no, and then it would be awkward on set. But thank God because I loved it. It was just so unusual and interesting and funny. I think for me as Samantha, I think there are a lot of parts that I play that are very dramatic and that’s great and I love that. Obviously, I gravitate towards that. Like, it’s my fault. But I love comedy and I love being able to have a sense of humor and do something a little bit different. She’s probably closer to me in a lot of ways and I’ve also been an actress for 37 years. So, I understand what it’s like to be an actor and I understand what it’s like to be struggling. I understand what it’s like to not get jobs. I’ve not gotten jobs for far longer than I have gotten jobs. So that feeling of being an actor in LA. is something that I’m very familiar with. So, it was fun to kind of be able to tap into that.
Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the difficulties Samantha is having with her career when she starts her treatment at Shell, and how that changes her life in both good and bad ways?
EM: So, as I’m sure you and your readers are familiar with, there is an idea of how one is supposed to look like as an actress in Hollywood. It’s changing, which is great, and there are so many incredible, talented actors, and actresses of all different shapes and sizes, but there is still, I think, this idea of beauty that exists just in the world. As you age, it gets harder, and the parts get less. Again, that is changing as well, which is awesome, but it is a thing. There’s this like constant search for youth in our society. So, anything that brings us that, whether it’s the latest thing of putting whatever on your face, you should put on your face. It’s so believable that if you found some treatment that made you look whatever your ideal age was, I mean, everybody would sign up for it. It’s very relatable. So, I felt like that was something that even though it’s very tongue-in-cheek and it’s quite broad some of the comedy and some of the horror elements as well, it’s meant to be camp, but at the same time, it’s not that far off from putting snails on your face.
(L to R) Kate Hudson and Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the friendship Samantha begins with Zoe and why she is drawn to her as a person and role model?
EM: I think it’s what we all find incredibly attractive and how we all feel about Kate Hudson. When I came on and then Kate came up as a possibility, I remember it was just the coolest, best idea because she is that person that is so aspirational. She’s obviously stunning. She’s also talented and she’s unique and my being starstruck by her was not that different from Samantha. I remember saying to Max, “I literally have to do no acting here”. I can’t believe I’m about to meet Kate Hudson or I can’t believe I’m talking to Kate Hudson. She’s an icon and just that girl that you want to be, you know, she’s got that thing. She’s got that It-Factor and always has.
Kate Hudson in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
MF: What was Kate Hudson like to have as a scene partner?
EM: I think this is honestly one of her best performances. It was remarkable getting to watch her. She’s always been considered incredibly talented from the very beginning. We all know that, but I think she’s pulling out even more complicated and interesting work than we’ve ever seen from her. I mean, I think that’s universally acknowledged. So, it was super fun. She’s very adventurous, fearless, and she works incredibly hard. I think that’s the thing that most actors find is that the best actors work hard. They work on their lines, and they want to do it again or they’re not satisfied with that take, and they want to try something else. They want direction and they want notes. The best actors really work at it. She does not rest on her laurels. She is not somebody who’s like, “I’m a movie star. I’m just going to do what I want to do and you’re just going to enjoy it.” She really tries to push herself.
(L to R) Director Max Minghella and actor Elisabeth Moss on the set of ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
MF: Finally, you worked with Max Minghella as an actor on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ but what was it like being directed by your friend on this film?
EM: It was very seamless, honesty. We’re close friends, Max and I, we talk about movies all the time. We talk about TV shows all the time. We’re kind of very similar to people in a lot of ways. I’ve directed him, obviously, and I’ve worked with him for years before I started directing him. So, he’s been on set with me a lot, you know? So, he knows what works for me and that there’s no ego. There’s pussy footing around. There’s no being careful with each other. It’s very easy to just be like, “Can we just do this?” Or like, “What do you think about this?” And he would also ask me questions and get my help with things or get my opinion on things. It’s very collaborative. It was seamless. We literally could have walked from one set where he was directing to the next room where I was, and it would have been completely seamless.
(L to R) Kate Hudson and Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
What’s the story of ‘Shell’?
Desperate to reclaim her career, once-beloved actress Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss) is drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson)—only to uncover a monstrous truth beneath its flawless surface.
Who is in the cast of ‘Shell’?
Elisabeth Moss as Samantha Lake
Kate Hudson as Zoe Shannon
Arian Moayed as Dr. Hubert
Kaia Gerber as Chloe Benson
Este Haim as Lydia
Elizabeth Berkley as Jenna Janero
Amy Landecker as Detective Flores
Lionel Boyce as Detective Abramson
Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shell’. Photo: © 2025 Paramount Pictures.
List of Elisabeth Moss Movies and TV Shows:
Buy Elisabeth Moss Movies and TV on Amazon
by admin | Sep 30, 2025 | Moviephone News, News
(Left) Nicolas Cage stars in ‘The Surfer’. Photo: Saturn Films. (Center) Alice Eve in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Photo: Paramount Pictures. (Right) Sir Ben Kingsley in ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, which will launch on 28th August 2025 exclusively on Netflix. Photo: Netflix.
Preview:
- Nicolas Cage, Ben Kingsley and Alice Eve are in the cast of ‘Fortitude’.
- It’s an espionage action-adventure set during World War II.
- Simon West is directing.
The cameras for the movie are already rolling, but World War II-set espionage action-adventure ‘Fortitude’ just announced, via Deadline, the sort of sprawling ensemble you’d have trouble listing in one breath.
Led by the likes of Nicolas Cage, Alice Eve, Michael Sheen and Ben King… Sorry, Sir Benjamin of Kingsley, it promises plenty of based-on-truth spy goodness.
Simon West, who previously directed the likes of ‘Con Air’, ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ and ‘The Expendables 2’, is overseeing this one.
Related Article: Nicolas Cage Reportedly in Talks to Play Live-Action Spider-Man Noir
What’s the story of ‘Fortitude’?
Nicolas Cage stars in ‘The Surfer’.
Written by Simon Afram, the movie is based on the true story of British Intelligence operatives using unprecedented strategic operations to fool Nazi leadership and help change the course of World War II.
With historical consultation from Joshua Levine (‘Dunkirk’), the film follows the brilliance of British Army officers Dudley Clarke and Thomas Argyll “Tar” Robertson, who deployed an elaborate web of deception campaigns including fictitious armies, fake military equipment and a network of double agents to mislead Nazi Intelligence. Among them was Yugoslavian playboy Dusko Popov, a real-life double agent who is said to have inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond character.
Who else is in ‘Fortitude’?
Sir Ben Kingsley in ‘The Killer’s Game’. Photo: Lionsgate.
Very deep breath, then…
In addition to Cage, Eve, Sheen and Kingsley, the movie will also feature Matthew Goode (‘Watchmen’), Ed Skrein (‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’), Jordi Mollà (‘MobLand’), Art Malik (‘True Lies’), Lukas Haas (‘Inception’), Adrian Topol (‘Franz + Polina’), Emilio Sakraya (‘Sixty Minutes’) and Paul Anderson (‘Peaky Blinders’).
Here’s Afram talking up the movie in a statement:
“We are excited to bring together such a remarkable ensemble. Their chemistry and depth, paired with West’s direction, elevate this story into something truly gripping and unforgettable.”
The cameras started cranking earlier this month in London.
When will ‘Fortitude’ be in theaters?
Since this is more of an indie project, it’ll likely be putting its rights up for sale at film markets. And given that cast, we don’t imagine it’ll have too much trouble finding a home, but until then, a release date is lurking some way in the distance.
Michael Sheen in ‘Good Omens’ Season 2. Photo: Mark Mainz/Prime Video. © 2023 Prime.
Movies like ‘Fortitude’:
Buy Nicolas Cage Movies and TV on Amazon
by admin | Sep 29, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Park Chan-wook’s anticipated black comedy thriller No Other Choice opened at the top of Korea’s theatrical box office over the weekend, earning $4.6 million from Friday to Sunday. The film launched in the country Wednesday (Sept. 24) on a little over 2,000 screens and has earned a healthy $7.5 million to date. The solid start — significantly better than the $2.4 million Park’s previous feature Decision to Leave brought in during its first weekend in 2022 — marks the second-biggest opening by a Korean film in the home market this year, behind only Pil Gam-sung’s comedy-horror My Daughter Is a Zombie, which debuted in July with $8.3 million.
A passion project for Park that took nearly two decades to produce, No Other Choice premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, earning some of the strongest reviews of the festival during a notably strong edition. It makes its next major international showing at the New York Film Festival next week. Neon will release the film later this year in North America.
A jet-black social satire, No Other Choice follows veteran paper mill manager You Man-su (Korean screen icon Lee Byung-hun), a devoted family man who spirals after being laid off and discarded by a ruthless job market. Humiliated by failed interviews and mocked by corporate gatekeepers, he resolves to claw back dignity by any means necessary — a decision that sends him down a very Park Chan-wook-esque path of violence. With Son Ye-jin as his charismatic and resilient wife and Park Hee-soon as the contemptuous foreman who becomes his nemesis, the film could scarcely be more timely in the way it skewers the indignities of contemporary work culture, the fragility of masculine pride, and the absurd shapes the survival instinct must take in our late-capitalist, AI-encroached present day.
No Other Choice pulled ahead of a pair of popular imported anime titles in the weekend box office race in Korea. Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc, a feature anime adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s best-selling fantasy manga, also opened Wednesday and has earned $3.5 million (with $2.5 million of the total coming over the weekend). In third place, anime sensation Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle continued to draw audiences more than a month after its Aug. 22 Korean debut, adding just shy of $1 million for a massive $38.7 million local total (worldwide, the film has brought in $605 million, the most ever by a Japanese film).
Train to Busan hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s dark indie experiment The Ugly claimed fourth place for the frame, earning $673,000 for a three-weekend total of $7.5 million. Made on a microbudget but featuring an all-star creative team, the richly layered film tells the story of a son investigating the mysterious death of his mother during Korea’s economic boom of the 1970s.
by admin | Sep 28, 2025 | Hollywood Reporter News, News
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another, easily takes the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office with an estimated $22.4 million plus opening in North America in over 3,600 locations. Internationally, it has earned $26.1 million for an expected global cume of $48.5 million.
The film cost a reported $130 million before marketing costs, meaning an opening in the low-$20 million range can easily be seen as disappointing. However, it can also be read as a solid start for an original movie from an auteur director with an R-rating and an almost three-hour runtime. One Battle is also seen as a major awards contender and is likely to generate press and word-of-mouth for many months. The film’s second weekend performance will be a better indicator in terms of its staying power.
One thing is certain: The One Battle box office was buoyed by audiences seeking out premium formats. The film was offered in 70mm, IMAX 70mm, IMAX Digital and VistaVision (albeit on four screens). The movie earned $4.6 million in North America from 412 IMAX screens, or roughly 20 percent of the film’s total domestic ticket sales.
One Battle stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up and burnt-out revolutionary who is called back into action when his daughter (Chase Infiniti) is kidnapped by his former nemesis (Sean Penn). Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor round out the cast.
The film has opened to universal praise, with One Battle boasting a 95 Metacritic score and an A CinemaScore. The Hollywood Reporter’s review of the film from Richard Lawson reads, “One Battle After Another is a furious film, a richly engaging and persuasive polemic from a filmmaker who has never shied from provocation but who has not before spoken so directly to his audience.”
One Battle is director Anderson’s biggest opening weekend in a career that spans Boogie Nights to Licorice Pizza. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is his highest-earning title to date, with $40 million in North American ticket sales.
As for Warners, the studio has been on a hot streak as of late, beginning with Minecraft ($957 million, globally), followed by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners ($366 million, globally), and New Line offering Weapons ($264 million, globally).
Coming in at No. 2 at the domestic box office will be the weekend’s other new offering: Universal and DreamWorks’ Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. The G-rated film, which carries a reported price tag of $32 million, is tracking to earn $13.7 million in its debut.
Gabby’s Dollhouse, a combination of live-action and CG animation, is based on the wildly popular streaming animated children’s series of the same name that debuted in 2021 and has since premiered eleven seasons (the twelfth season is due out in November on Netflix). The film stars Laila Lockhart Kraner, reprising her role from the series, along with Gloria Estefan and Kristen Wiig.
Internationally, the film opened in 37 territories, including Australia and Mexico. It earned $5.6 million for a current global haul of $19.3 million.
Elsewhere, Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures’ Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which had a record-setting U.S. opening of $70 million, came in at No. 3, making $7.1 million from 2,984 venues over the weekend. The film’s domestic total sits at $118.1 million after three weeks in theaters.
Warners title The Conjuring: Last Rites, now in its fourth weekend, landed at the No. 4 spot this weekend with $6.9 million in domestic ticket sales, bringing its domestic cume to $161.5 million and $435 million globally.
September 28, 9:06 a.m. Updated with new estimates.
This story was originally published on Sept. 27 at 9:04 a.m.
