Overview

• The drama is beginning its theatrical run in Germany and other European markets after late-September festival screenings.
• Benny Safdie’s solo feature adapts John Hyams’s 2002 HBO documentary, concentrating on Mark Kerr’s career window from 1997 to 2000.
• Critics highlight unvarnished, documentary-style staging that renders the MMA bouts with bruising realism.
• The story foregrounds painkiller dependence and the toll of competitive pressure, as Emily Blunt’s Dawn Staples draws notes for an underwritten role.
• Johnson’s physically transformed, restrained turn is widely described as award-caliber, and the film earned recognition at Venice, though reports differ on the exact prize cited.