Benny Safdie’s biopic The Smashing Machine about mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr is an intensely physical affair – whether in the sweat-soaked bouts in the ring or the strained arguments with his girlfriend. Yet despite the brute force of its subject, the film concerns itself with subtle shifts in personal conflict, a nuance captured in no small part by its soundtrack. Against the brutal fight sequences, the score by harpist Nala Sinephro sets a reflective counterpoint.
Her chamber-jazz ensemble centres on harp, supported primarily by synthesiser, James Mollison’s saxophone and Nubya Garcia’s flute. Strings by Orchestrate recur throughout, drifting through the arrangements with restrained melancholy. Even the more charged moments are not rendered with maximal drama, but shaped through a deliberately open ambivalence. This is particularly evident in the title track, where a repetitive drum pattern gradually intensifies its pulse, accompanied by synthesiser glissandi that threaten to spiral out of control – yet remain measured. The tension eventually dissolves into a collected, lyrical passage in which the individual voices form a contemplative polyphony.
Sinephro appears briefly in one scene of the film, without special emphasis. Listening to the soundtrack, however, her presence becomes all the more palpable.
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