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For better or worse, the sports biopic “The Smashing Machine” (A24) registers as a highly realistic film. With both a real-life figure as its focus and a documentary as its source material, that may be unsurprising. But the low-key, unsensational approach adopted by writer-director Benny Safdie ultimately produces varied results.

Returning to the big screen for the first time in nearly eight years in “Anemone,” Daniel Day-Lewis plays this central figure, Ray Stoker. Day-Lewis also co-wrote the screenplay with his son, Ronan, who directed the film.