6 Years Ago, ‘The Smashing Machine’ Director Made Adam Sandler’s Best Movie Ever
The Dwayne Johnson-led sports drama is streaming now, but it might be not Benny Safdie’s finest film in the career.
Despite mixed reviews, the Oscar buzz is sounding quite clear for Benny Safdie’s new biographical sports movie The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
The film premiered in Venice back in September and since then has looked like a solid promise of an Oscar nod for Johnson whose performance critics praised as one of the entire movie’s strongest points.
The Smashing Machine’s success, however, isn’t the first major win for Safdie who many might recognize as Edward Teller in Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer; several years before that, the filmmaker gained an even bigger recognition for a crime thriller that brought Adam Sandler his best role in the entire career.
Before ‘The Smashing Machine’, Benny Safdie Directed Adam Sandler’s ‘Uncut Gems’
- On Rotten Tomatoes, Uncut Gems holds scores of 91% and 52% from critics and audiences
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 7.4/10
Directed by both Benny and his brother Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems was an instant hit when it first arrived in theatres, grossing around $50 million against its $19 million budget in the limited theatrical run.
Comedian Adam Sandler stars as Howard Ratner, a charismatic jeweller who barely makes the end meet trying to get out of huge debts when a rare Ethiopian black opal comes into his hands.
Determined to start his life from scratch, Howard makes a high-stakes bet which puts him into an even more entangled web of risk and gambling, threatening not only him personally, but also his entire family and business.
Released in 2019, Uncut Gems turned into one of the biggest discoveries of the year, particularly thanks to Sandler’s against-type dramatical role that many critics and viewers called the most impressive part of the actor’s entire career.
The movie was even expected to enter the list of Oscar nominees in 2020, but was eventually snubbed completely.
Meanwhile, Benny Safdie’s Brother Is Releasing Another Potential Oscar Nominee
Now that Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine is expected to get at least one Oscar nomination for Johnson, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme might be gaining some recognition among the Academy’s voters too.
Starring Timothée Chalamet, the sports comedy drama follows table tennis star Marty Mauser and chronicles the events following the rise of his career.
Marty Supreme was met with enthusiasm during its premiere at the New York Film Festival in October and will be released in theatres worldwide on December 25.
