Weekly Roundup: Smashing Machine, Blue Moon, Eden
It’s been a few weeks since I saw a new movie and really connected with it.
The problem is situational rather than systemic—I hope. While I’ll admit that mainlining heady Oscar-worthy films for nearly two months straight has left me desperate for light and breezy entertainment, I’m hoping that I’ve just had a run of bad luck finding films that bounce off of me for one reason or another.
I want to stress that none of the films I watched this week were bad—well, Eden might be a little bad—and you might find something in them that I missed. Don’t let my lukewarm takes dissuade you from exploring them yourself!
Here's what I watched this week:
- Blue Moon, Richard Linklater’s night-in-the-life portrait of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart
- The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie and the Rock’s box office flop of a biopic about 90s MMA fighter Mark Kerr
- Eden, Ron Howard’s historical thriller about murder and intrigue among a group of German settlers on a remote island in the Galápagos
In 2024 directorial duo Benny and Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time) announced they were ending their creative partnership. The next year they each released their first post-divorce solo projects. Marty Supreme was Josh’s. The Smashing Machine was Benny’s.
The Smashing Machine is a biopic about mixed martial artist Mark Kerr, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, following his career in the fledgling sport and struggles with opioid addiction. Set in the late 90s, the film is a glimpse into an earlier, far more violent era of MMA.
There are plenty of the hallmarks you’d expect from a Safdie film here. The visuals are masterfully textured, alternating between scenes shot on VHS camcorders for that verité look and glorious 70mm. Scenes are populated by non-actors—largely real-world MMA fighters and trainers—adding a bit of verisimilitude. Even the themes of self-destructive pursuit of fame and glory are classic Safdie stuff.
But while Benny manages to nail the look and some of the feel of a Safdie picture, he unfortunately fails to conjure the driving energy that makes films like Uncut Gems and his brother’s new movie so damn engaging. Scenes play out slowly, like documentary footage without the voiceover.
Much of the issue is with Dwayne Johnson. The man has built himself into a global brand off his movie-star charisma and scientifically impossible physique—he’s denied using steroids throughout his career—but he just can’t manage to show true vulnerability. He has no trouble portraying Kerr’s gentle, soft-spoken mannerisms, but as the physical and psychological trauma mount he fails to sell me on the character’s inner struggle. If this was the Rock’s attempt to perform a Sandler-like pivot into serious dramatic territory, I can’t say it worked.
Speaking of creative divorces: Blue Moon is a portrait of the sad afterlife of a creative whose former partner has gone on to greater things. It follows lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) on the night that his former partner—Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott)—premieres his newest work: Oklahoma!
Set in one location, we get to know Hart through his long-winded monologues directed at friends, admirers, creative contemporaries, and anyone who will listen. As the film progresses we begin to see through his wit and sarcasm and see a man who knows that his best creative days are behind him.
My core issue with Blue Moon is that I found Lorenz Hart just too goddamn annoying to listen to for 100 minutes. While I’ve enjoyed other dialogue-heavy Linklater films (Before Sunrise, Dazed and Confused), he’s chosen a subject who’s just too obnoxious for me to form a connection to.
I wanted to like Blue Moon. There were moments when I did—the scenes where Rodgers and Hart have to navigate the awkwardness of their relationship were standouts. But I spent the majority of the runtime feeling like I was missing something.
Eden is a dramatization of the “Galápagos Affair”, a stranger-than-fiction episode of deceit and murder that took place on a remote island in the 1930s. The film, which features an ensemble cast including Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, and Ana de Armas, follows three bands of German settlers, all fleeing Fascism in Europe, as they try to establish their own vision of paradise on the inhospitable land.
There’s nothing catastrophically wrong with Eden. The cast is solid, even if their German accents are not, and the true-life story is fertile ground for a gripping thriller. But the characters are all too odd and idiosyncratic to fully connect with, and the twists and turns in their circumstances are too clumsily dolled out.
I don’t want to end this newsletter without recommending something I actually liked. So instead of watching Eden, go watch 2013’s Rush. Also by Ron Howard and starring Daniel Brühl (and Chris Hemsworth), it’s a historical sports drama about F1 racing in the 1970s. It’s well-acted, tightly crafted, and generally a great time.
Thanks for reading and please consider coming to an upcoming showtime!
Tyler Haas