Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson as legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr, delivered a knockout punch Monday at the Venice Film Festival. The A24 film had its world premiere Monday night inside Sala Grande and the audience went wild, responding with a 15-minute standing ovation. It proved to be a special night for Johnson …
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The bit in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘60s film “Pierrot le Fou” where Belmondo asks maverick filmmaker Sam Fuller, playing himself, to give him a precise definition of cinema has been quoted within an inch of its life. So, to preface with a paraphrase of Reagan, here I go again. Quoth Fuller: “Film is like a battleground … It’s love, hate, action, …
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Is The Rock headed to the Oscars? Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance in “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy. Dwayne Johnson uncontrollably sobbed as the world premiere audience on the Lido chanted, cheered and screamed during a 15-minute standing ovation, one of the …
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First reviews are out for The Smashing Machine, the first solo directorial effort from indie favorite Benny Safdie, which debuted this evening in Venice. The film stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The story follows fighter Mark Kerr (Johnson) from the no-holds-barred era of the UFC at the peak of his career as he questions himself and struggles with life …
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Dwayne Johnson takes on his most dramatic role yet in Benny Safdie’s wrestling biopic “The Smashing Machine,” playing UFC champion Mark Kerr. At the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference, the action star revealed that he’s been wanting to expand his repertoire for a while now. “Machine” screens in competition at the fest. “I have, for a long time, wanted …
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“It’s my first time in Venice,” Dwayne Johnson told the audience this morning as gingerly he entered the room for the official presser for his competition title The Smashing Machine. The veteran WWE fighter turned actor was joined at the presser by his co-star, Emily Blunt, and director Benny Safdie. The film, which debuts this evening in Venice, marks Safdie’s …
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On an overcast Tuesday in July, divers Mitch Johnson and Sean Taylor shimmy into their wetsuits on the back of the R/V Xenarcha, a 28ft boat floating off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes, south of Los Angeles. Behind them, the clear waters of the Pacific are dotted with a forest of army-green strands, waving like mermaid hair underwater. We …
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Leave it to Noel Gallagher to make the first public comments about Oasis’ blockbuster reunion tour while calling in to his favorite sports talk radio show. On Tuesday, Gallagher chatted with talkSPORT hosts Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent after Oasis wrapped their first run of U.K. and Ireland dates with a two-night stand in Dublin. “I’m feeling a bit shaky …
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Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Getty This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. Mila didn’t want a wedding. Eloping on a beach would have suited her, but when her boyfriend of six years proposed and insisted on a more formal event, she planned an intimate garden party. There …
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Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste Just the other day—amidst trying to work out exactly how delusional Jeremy Renner’s being with his apparently rock-solid belief that he’ll star in a second season of Hawkeye one of these days—we ran the math on which of the original Avengers from The Avengers had most recently showed up (as their …
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