Dwayne Johnson is coming to a turning point in his career; from predictable and interchangeable movies to Martin Scorsese and Benny Safdie, are we about to see The Rocknaissance..?.
You’ve seen that meme. A four-panelled picture of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, dressed in seemingly identical gear (a tight white T, stained in dirt and sweat) with his eponymous shiny head with nary a stray follicle in sight. It’s not from a single movie, it’s from four different movies and I couldn’t tell you exactly which those movies were because, in all honesty, they’re all pretty interchangeable. As for the man with the People’s Elbow aiding the flex of a gargantuan bicep, his characters are always the same with very minute variations.
Yes, for a time in Johnson’s box office heyday, he’d carefully cultivated a formula that worked immensely. It worked so well that Johnson had one of the few names in the business who could seemingly sell a movie by his mere presence – just like the movie stars of yesteryear could. Marvel stars often falter leading projects where they aren’t donning an iconic suit. Johnson’s, Fast and Furious co-star (and mortal enemy?), Vin Diesel doesn’t have much big-screen value outside of the car franchise he helped launch.
Covid hit and its aftermath and Johnson’s continuing and prolific output saw him do sequels, IP projects and even play Black Adam to hop on board the comic book train. Waning box office returns, including for the long-gestating Black Adam were just the tip of an iceberg suggesting that audiences were possibly growing weary of Johnson going through the Johnson motions.
Johnson on his way to the top of the mountain was certainly reliable when it came to undemanding and action-packed entertainment, with something of an assurance that most of the audience were gonna have a good time. As an actor, however, the critics remained unimpressed. Much like John Cena right now, Johnson was damned with faint praise as a presence adept at making light-hearted cinema or kick-ass cinema. He seemed to shift away from a more varied approach during his earlier years where he did slightly edgier films or played quirkier supporting roles. He would deliver so-so returns on modest budgets with films like Faster and Snitch and try to show some range with Be Cool or the much-maligned Southland Tales (Richard Kelly’s disappointing follow-up to Donnie Darko). He also had a stab at being a family movie staple by sending up his huge frame in films where he was regularly outwitted by kids.
It was Johnson’s appearance in Fast Five that did two things. It took the franchise up to a whole new level of earning big bucks and it did the same for Johnson’s own career too. He became a guy you could trust in a 100 million plus budget movie and expect to gross huge sums. He was then made the leading figure in the Jumanji reboots. Two Jumanji films, a Hobbs and Shaw film (at least internationally), and Fast Five through The Fate of the Furious all rank in the list of his highest-grossing movies. Johnson has also been part of a huge Netflix original with Red Notice, a film that cost $200 million to effectively go straight to streaming (with a small limited release that was token).
The falling returns and struggles that The Rock is experiencing on the big screen suggest that audiences feel like they’ve been there and done that with his work. Some more recent films feel stale with a sense that Johnson is dare I say (and face Rock Bottom)…phoning it in. It’s autopilot and the question that greeted his first film remains the same in his most recent; can Dwayne Johnson act? Some of his better performances, like Faster or Michael Bay’s atypically flawed, Pain and Gain feel like distant memories. In the meantime, Dave Bautista’s comedic skills in Marvel and his collaborations with Denis Villeneuve suggested that he was THE (living) wrestler-turned-actor to watch (though Bautista has succumbed to inconsistency and routine recently).
We know Dwayne can play a hulking and stoic tough guy. He can do it as humourless or with a little wry one-liner. He can also play an exaggerated tough with good effect in comedy, but we haven’t really seen him open up, be complex, or be multi-layered. Step forward, Benny Safdie. One-half of the directing duo Safdie brothers, Benny has broken off to write and direct The Smashing Machine, based on ex-MMA champion Mark Kerr. Benny Safdie, along with Josh Safdie, previously revitalised Robert Pattinson, before pulling a career-best performance out of Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. Johnson has a real-life person to play in what will be a hard-hitting and no-holds-barred bio picture (for A24 no less).
This will definitely push Johnson’s capabilities and I’ve no doubt he can rise to it and deliver one of, if not potentially, his best performance. If the big-scale tentpole pictures aren’t bringing the returns of old, then Johnson could well seek to make smaller projects with more compelling scripts. Here’s where the prospects of the Rocknaissance get even more exciting: a potential leading role in one of Martin Scorsese’s rumoured upcoming projects.
Set to star in a gangster epic set in Hawaii opposite Emily Blunt and Leonardo DiCaprio, this could well be the biggest breakout film for Dwayne Johnson the thespian. Scorsese rarely doesn’t get a great performance out of someone. Johnson could also potentially tap into a darker and more interesting character, playing a Hawaiian mob boss. If Safdie and Scorsese can’t pull out another level to Johnson’s repertoire, then no one can. In addition, whilst many of the blockbusters have been formulaic and production-line in their delivery, Johnson will get the chance to work with real auteurs, capable of producing exceptional cinema. In addition, he had previously been linked to star in a Robert Zemeckis film so there would seem to be a concerted effort to try and show new sides to Johnson and help him step away from that burned-in image of the big guy with two facial expressions (eyebrow up…eyebrow down) and a wardrobe consisting (almost solely) of tight fit white t-shirts or tight fit black t-shirts.
What do you think of Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming collaborations with Benny Safdie and Martin Scorsese? Can The Rock, act? Drop us a comment on our socials @Flickering Myth…
Tom Jolliffe
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