Hollywood’s business is telling stories and building legends, on our screens and in their corner of the non-fictional world. When one of the biggest box office draws on the planet shifted his focus from four-quadrant crowd-pleasers to smaller movies with critically-acclaimed collaborators, it seemed like Hollywood might have one its favorite stories on its hands — the Oscar narrative.
Oscars are the biggest prize the movie business gives itself each year, and the Academy Awards the biggest party it throws
itself. They often focus on things that glorify Hollywood and cinema in general, and someone like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moving beyond populist fare like the Fast & Furious franchise (and WWE) to become a “real actor” is the kind of thing that’s been known to pique the Academy’s interest.
So Johnson’s shift to more serious fare with last year’s The Smashing Machine, a dramatic recreation of a documentary of the same name about trouble mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr, written and directed by Uncut Gems’ Benny Safdie? That seemed tailor-made for an Oscar narrative.
Unfortunately, while critics were generally favorable to The Smashing Machine and Johnson’s lead performance as Kerr, audiences generally weren’t interested. There was still hope for awards season though, where wins for the film, Safdie, Johnson, or co-star Emily Blunt could get more people to watch The Smashing Machine on streaming and drive excitement for Rock’s next projects (currently planned to be with Black Swan’s Darren Aronofsky and some guy named Martin Scorcese).
Golden Globes nods for both Rock and his former Jungle Cruise co-star Blunt were a reason for hope, but those hopes may have been dashed last night (Jan. 11) when neither actor won their respective category: Johnson was among those who lost to The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura in “Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” and Blunt finished somewhere behind One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor in the voting for “Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture”.
Handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes have a bit of a troubled history — which is part of why they aren’t necessarily a pre-requisite for winning an Oscar. But they’re were Oscar-winners often pick up momentum (last night’s show was a good example, with some surprising wins few expect to be replicated when the Academy hands out statuettes in March… or even when nominations come out next Thursday (Jan. 22)).
Still, The Smashing Machine coming up empty-handed at The Globes last night isn’t a great sign.
