The Rules of Engagement or Sanctioned Destruction under Capitalism in The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme
The Safdies split this year to bring us double the usual number of male characters rushing to anxiously accomplish something that feels meaningful only to them. Both films are a testament to finding meaning at any cost, including the well-being of the people around you. Each brother offers us a look into how a charismatic anti-hero at the peaks of his respective sport navigates failure and success. Both films show men who can use the framework of capitalism to achieve their dark desires—Mark Kerr (played by the buffest we’ve ever seen him, Dwayne Johnson) with an insatiable need for control and dominance only temporarily soothed by the octagon, and Marty Supreme (played by Timothée Chalamet) with an over inflated ego stroked by his dominance over his niche sport.
As is usual in the Safdie-universe, these characters have a never-ending drive to win and dominate, and have found a hyper-specific niche role in society that lets them focus entirely on winning, even to the detriment of everything else. As Mark The Smashing Machine Kerr encounters defeat for the first time, his hyper-focused violence bleeds into his personal life, through drug abuse and the domestic violence he inflicts upon his partner, Dawn. The Supreme Marty Mauser is a sociopathic sweet-talker and scam artist who uses personal relationships as a vehicle to advance his professional career in the same way he uses his professional career as an excuse to sate his larger-than-life ego. Marty leaves a path of destruction around him as his unending appetite for money and fame is unable to be sated, and he becomes more desperate as the world catches on to his scams and begins to put up barriers that stop his advance. As he puts it, “It’s the difference between the flashlight and a laser beam,” he says. “I have to make sure I’m 100% concentrated on what I do, or else my emotions will be running everywhere like a flashlight.”
The Smashing Machine is a look into lightly regulated legal violence, as we follow Mark Kerr’s entirely downward career trajectory. Mark’s overpowering physique matches his desire to control his opponents’ much smaller and weaker bodies in the ring. Upon tasting defeat for the first time, this need for control becomes focused on his long-term girlfriend Dawn (played by Emily Blunt) as Mark continues the only performance he knows how to do. The Smashing Machine continually slips back and forth between Mark’s career in flashy and brutal MMA combat and passive-aggressive domesticity, where small miscommunications and unresolved tensions snowball into explosions the same way that probing jabs turn into brutal close-quarters grappling and striking. We see Mark pick a fight with Dawn that ends with her storming off and breaking a vase, followed by him apologizing on stage at an MMA convention “to the Japanese people” for his earlier fighting performance. As he puts it, “I’m going to physically impose my will onto you… And you really feel when that happens, when the person just lets go and totally withers away in your arms. And that’s a pretty powerful thing…” Then, in another shocking sequence, a press release in the film explains that “multiple kicks to the back of the head are not allowed unless his head is facing up – then you can kick him in the head” with the same emotional intensity as a stewardess informing Dawn to put her tray up in the next scene. After this rule change, we go into Act II as Mark is defeated, and his laser focus is broken, and emotions and violence spill out of him like a flashlight. He spirals into drug addiction, and then, after quickly being able to get his habit under control, focuses his destructive powers on Dawn. Mark chastises her for tiny issues and minor inconveniences, as he micromanages and controls her every move. We see Dawn taking Advil after a night of partying, and Mark immediately takes offence. He calls his sponsor in the same way that he calls for a referee, and says, “See what I have to deal with in my own home?” We’ll see this domestic bout culminate days before his final tournament, as Mark and Dawn escalate a minor argument into dramatic physical violence, and Mark ends up physically restraining Dawn, then calling the police and having her removed. Mark pinning Dawn down in the bathroom is the last time we will see his physical dominance on display, as he goes on to be upset by a minor contender and disappear from the public eye permanently.
On the other hand, Marty Supreme follows Uncut Gems and The Wolf of Wall Street in being more of a sociopath’s tale than a sports biopic by focusing on everything except for Marty’s sport of choice. Marty’s hotshot attitude and intense ego will arrest his promising career as he fails to “play ball” with promoters, sponsors and league officials. Like Adam Sandler’s character in Uncut Gems, Marty pushes the limits of everyone around him as he tries to feed his insatiable ego. Much like the sociopathic traders in the Wolf Of Wall Street, table tennis allows Marty to express his base instincts in a socially acceptable way—he claims to have a drive to be “#1 in the world”, but declines numerous opportunities to “pay his dues” and drum up interest/support for the fledgling sport, as Marty can’t bear to degrade himself by doing labour that he sees as beneath him, like playing in a novelty act. Marty would rather steal from his friends and community and put his loved ones in danger doing dangerous crimes than degrade himself. The Synthwave soundtrack by OneOhTrixPointNever paints 1950s New York with an 80s sleaze, as Marty’s “look out for number 1” attitude destroys his relationships and hurts everyone around him.
When all of Marty’s schemes fail, and he’s out of favours he can call in, he throws himself at the feet of capitalism itself. Kevin O’Leary from Dragon’s Den is in charge of deciding if Marty gets to go to Japan or not, and demands the likes of a blood sacrifice—Marty must degrade himself in front of a room full of rich men to continue his quest. Unlike The Smashing Machine’s decline and fade into obscurity, Marty Supreme is given one last chance and can prove himself on the world stage, and then finds happiness and purpose in fatherhood.
Pink Asparagus 