Editor’s Note: Vanyaland film editor Nick Johnston is back in Canada this week covering the 50th Toronto International Film Festival. And as usual, we wish we were up there with him! Check out our continuing 2025 coverage, get rolling with our official curtain-raiser, and revisit the complete Vanyaland coverage archives from past TIFF editions. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine is essentially about learning how to lose. Early on, our protagonist, the champion mixed martial artist Mark Kerr (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is asked by a Japanese journalist how … Continue reading TIFF50 Review: The Rock dominates ‘The Smashing Machine’