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Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. A charismatic entertainer becomes a mega action movie star

hopping from franchise to franchise, building a middle-of-the-road brand that appeals across

every conceivable demographic. But eventually, being an extremely popular entertainer is not

enough. The new goal, to be taken seriously as an actor. Enter Dwayne the Rock Johnson

and his capital A acting turn in the smashing machine. The wrestling drama pulls out all the

classic moves in the award season playbook. Biopic struggles with addiction, facial prosthetics. We can

smell what the rock is cooking, but is it a hearty enough meal? I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about The Smashing Machine on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is the host of NPR's. It's Been a Minute, Brittany Luce. Welcome back, Brittany. Thank you. Good to be here. Also with us is one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast, Gene Demby.

Welcome back to you, too. What's good with you, Aisha? Great to have you. And rounding out the panel is freelance music and culture journalist Rihanna Cruz. Welcome back to you to, Rihanna. Happy to be here. Yes, yes. Happy to have all of you. I feel like this is going to be a very fun, very interesting conversation because this is a very, not fun, but interesting movie, I will say.

So in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson plays the real life Mark Kerr, a UFC champion who's known as one of the early pioneers of mixed martial arts in the United States.

Now, as Mark reels from his first major loss in the ring, he's forced to confront an addiction to painkillers.

His single-minded focus on training for the next big fight also threatens his relationship with his devoted but exasperated girlfriend Dawn, who's played by Emily Blunt.

Big accent work going on here, I'm just going to say.

The Smashing Machine is the solo directorial debut of Benny Safty, who usually collaborates with his brother Josh, and it's in theaters now.

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