Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Smashing Machine review and Anemone review elaborate on two much anticipated views that don’t meet up to expectations.

The Smashing Machine Review

The highly anticipated mixed martial arts movie focusing on the life of pioneer Mark Kerr, played by Dwayne Johnson, came as a complete surprise to me. What promised to be an insightful, moving, action packed and revealing biopic turned out to be a bit of a snooze.

It seems that Kerr, as portrayed in the film, did not have a particularly compelling story—at least not as told by writer/director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Times). He uses a cinema verite-style to drop us into the wrestler’s life in the late 1990’s at the peak of his career, with very little context about who he was, where he came from, or how he got there.

We do find out that Kerr is a glad handed, talky guy, not the boisterous beast UFC fighters would later become, and that he has a mercurial relationship with a clingy and shrill wife, played by Emily Blunt, who could have been better utilized.

Through brief, underdeveloped snippets, we also get the idea that in the early days of professional mixed martial arts competitions, most wrestlers negotiated their own deals, the world revolved around annual international tournaments in Japan, drug addiction was rampant, and the majority of matches involved one beefy guy immediately throwing his opponent down on the mat, with the matted guy cowering on knees while the other one brutally punches him on the head.

I’m not kidding. The matches in this movie last only a minute or two, and become redundant. I’m not sure if this is a directorial choice or an editing problem, but I am sure that the mixed martial arts matches in this film are  oddly lifeless and dull—what a missed opportunity!

Perhaps most confusing aspect of the film is the way most conflicts in the film end with a whisper, rather than a bang, with loose ends galore left dangling and no satisfying resolution. Even the ending, with the real life Kerr making an appearance, feels like a slowly leaking tire has finally gone flat.

Yet for all its weaknesses, The Smashing Machine has its strengths. I admire Safdie for making an unconventional sports biopic, eschewing the stereotypical tropes and timelines of the genre. I also admire Johnson for breaking personal boundaries and putting in a performance unlike any other in his career. And how fun is it to see him with hair?

Rated R

2 Hours 3 Minutes

Anemone Review

This is the much anticipated film that finally brought Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement. He starred in it, co-wrote the script with his son Ronan Day-Lewis, and also took direction from him—it is Ronan’s directing debut. The expectations are monumental. Would this be a Day Lewis tour de force? My fingers were crossed.

The plot treats some of the greatest horrors in modern Irish history, The Troubles, and clerical pedophelia, as they and other atrocities affect one family. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Ray, a disturbed hermit who lives alone in a rustic cabin in the woods, and Sean Bean plays his brother Jem, who leaves his wife and emotionally burdened son at home to trek into Ray’s wilderness to attempt to sort out some pressing family business.

Ronan Day-Lewis has a languid artistic vision (he’s a painter by trade) that lends an other worldly touch to the film, which is intentional. When Ray and Jem come together after  years of separation, they interact silently for an extended period of time. It’s intriguing. We don’t need words to learn about them and their relationship.

But nothing could have prepared me for the obscenely vile monologue that ensued. I’m reluctant to say it, but it to me it overwhelmed the film’s virtues, and left me with unwanted violent, scatalogical and phallic images in my head I can’t erase. Seriously. Take the most disturbing material you’ve ever heard, and multiply it by ten. I’ll say this for it—no one can make a more lasting impression than Daniel Day Lewis.

I was so viscerally affected I had to step out of the theater. At least I lasted longer than the only other viewer in the screening I attended. I caught him emerging, pale and sweating, from the men’s room, hurrying toward the exit.

Regardless of the stellar performances of the cast and Ronan Day-Lewis’s stylish vision, I can’t, in good conscience, recommend Anemone. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Rated R

2 Hours 1 Minute

If either The Smashing Machine review or the Anemone review encourages you to enjoy these films on the big screen, get the best seats in advance on Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Smashing Machine review and Anemone review elaborate on two much anticipated views that don’t meet up to expectations.