Safdie based "The Smashing Machine" on the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name, and what he's done is to make a drama that's less a "rousing" sports biopic than an intimate, exploratory, documentary-like slice of life that hits a lot of the same notes you'd expect from a sports biopic (the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the private ups and downs) but rarely in the way you expect.