'The Smashing Machine' Is a Triumph for Dwayne Johnson

This story contains spoilers for true events depicted in The Smashing Machine.

It looked like a classic Hollywood ending: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, sobbing (“uncontrollably,” per Variety) through a 15-minute standing ovation after the Venice Film Festival premiere of Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, in which Johnson plays MMA fighter Mark Kerr. With a surprisingly vulnerable, locked-in performance in one perfect role, Johnson had the industry rags asking “Is Dwayne Johnson headed to the Oscars?”