Film reviews: The Rock is cooking as a tortured grappler in The Smashing Machine

Plus: Urchin is a reflection on the precarity of life with addiction and mental illness

Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine

• The Smashing Machine
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

Opening in 1997, and based on a true story, The Smashing Machine (15A) stars Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, a man-mountain who was one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most successful pioneers. 

Indestructible in the ring, and otherwise an easy-going gentleman, Mark simply doesn’t understand what it means to lose. Until, much to his stunned horror, he is finally defeated, at which point his world crumbles.

Addicted to painkillers, constantly at war with his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt) and unable to process the concept of loss, Mark finds himself in the toughest fight of his entire life.

Written and directed by Benny Safdie, The Smashing Machine is an enjoyably unusual sports movie in many ways. 

There’s no obviously villainous opponent; Kerr’s biggest rival is his best friend and former trainer, Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader). 

Instead, this is a riveting drama about a man at war with himself and his self-sabotaging instincts.

Dwayne Johnson is terrific (and at times virtually unrecognisable) as the sensitive, thoughtful bruiser, although the reliably brilliant Emily Blunt is obliged to make the most of a role that casts the long-suffering Dawn as little more than a nagging shrew.

A young addict living on the streets of London is given a shot at redemption, but his road to recovery soon curdles into a strange odyssey from which he may never escape in Urchin (2025)

• Urchin
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

Urchin (15A) stars Frank Dillane as Mike, a homeless Londoner with a history of violence. Given the opportunity for a fresh start on his release from prison, the ambitious Mike is fizzing with ideas and plans, but staying clean is a lot tougher when you’re back on the streets.

A very impressive debut from writer-director Harris Dickinson, Urchin offers a bleakly realistic exploration of the fragility of a life undermined by addiction and mental health issues.

Bracingly authentic, it thrives on a wonderfully charismatic performance from Frank Dillane, who plays Mike as a loveable but viciously untrustworthy rogue with a very dark edge, and he gets very strong support from Megan Northam, playing Mike’s girlfriend Andrea, and Okezie Morro as Simon, one of Mike’s many victims.