MAGAZINE DREAMS (2023) review
written by: Elijah Bynum
produced by: Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros, Simon Horsman & Luke Rogers
directed by: Elijah Bynum
rated: R (for violent content, drug use, sexual material/nudity and language)
runtime: 124 min.
U.S. release date: March 21, 2025
A month before his big-screen debut as the antagonist in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” Jonathan Majors wowed audiences in 2023 at Sundance with his portrayal of an obsessed bodybuilder in “Magazine Dreams.” That same year, the actor had probably one of the biggest high-and-low months of his career when “Creed III” dropped in early March. Then, the news hit later that month that he was arrested and eventually charged with physically assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend. The coverage snowballed, Searchlight walked away from “Magazine Dreams” in 2024, and anything else Majors had lined up was dropped. Briarcliff Entertainment (“The Apprentice”) picked up domestic distribution last fall and is now releasing “Magazine Dreams” this month, hoping two years is enough time for viewers to separate Major’s off-screen legal troubles from his most demanding and unsettling role to date.
It’s challenging to consider “Magazine Dreams” on its own merit since it’s inevitably connected to what happened off-screen with Majors months after the film’s Sundance debut. Disney’s Searchlight Pictures picked it up, but before it could be released in December 2023, the allegations were announced. Then, the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike occurred, which further complicated any chances of anyone seeing it.
Even before “Magazine Dreams” premiered at Sundance, Majors was already a well-known talent (“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and “Lovecraft Country”), which only led to significant buzz surrounding his lead role here. Writer/director Elijah Bynum (whose last feature was 2017’s “Hot Summer Nights”) puts his protagonist and viewers through the wringer, having made a movie that asks everything of its star and is quite uncomfortable to watch for viewers.
Thirtysomething Killian Maddox (Majors) lives in Southern California with Paw-Paw (Harrison Page), his beloved grandfather, an ailing Vietnam veteran. When he’s not working at the local grocery store, Killian is devoting all of his time to sculpting every muscle in his body to make it on the cover of the bodybuilding magazines he scours through, the kind his idol, Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O’Hearn) has graced for years. He believes that’s the only way people will remember him and that becoming a champion is the best thing he could do with his life.
To maintain such commitment, Killian never skips a workout, sticks to 6,000 calories a day, and injects himself with steroids (and the occasional snort of cocaine). Apart from his sharply focused bodybuilding commitment, he struggles internally with a painful loneliness and insecurity that’s coupled with a punishing self-criticism and underlying anger. Despite being totally ripped, Killian is self-conscious about his body, primarily because a contest judge (Craig Cackowski, excellent in a cameo role) once told him his deltoids were too small, and he’s also frustrated that he can’t seem to get the definition he’d like on his legs.
That’s why when we first meet Killian, he’s sitting in the office of a social worker (Harriet Sansom Harris), whom the court assigned him to after a terrifying public incident in which he unleashed his simmering rage. Although he has the discipline that bodybuilding requires, when it comes to his emotions (which are often plagued by past trauma), he can’t seem to grasp how to control what is boiling under the surface. Apart from the social worker, the only other person he opens up to is Vanderhorn, yet that is a one-sided pen-pal relationship.
Longing for connection outside bodybuilding, Killian tries his best to engage with others, but his social awkwardness and short fuse trip him up. While Majors did insane physical preparation for the role, we see a nuanced and complicated portrayal of the character in Killian’s attempts to interact with someone outside his expertise. This can be found in two sequences involving Jessie (Haley Bennett), a cashier he likes at work. After his shift, it takes everything for Killian to get the courage to walk back into work and ask her out. She sees his awkwardness and vulnerability, and maybe he’s seen as more than a Muscle Man or an Angry Black Guy for the first time. It doesn’t go as he hoped it would when they eventually go on a date. He is unaware that he doesn’t have a filter, nor does he understand what his oversharing has done to the evening’s vibe.
During the few social work sessions we see and his one lousy date night, it’s easy to feel for Killian. If only he could harness all the energy and focus he’s invested in his body to get the mental help he needs. But he punishes himself by not thinking he’s enough and by how he feels he has to be perfect, or he loses it when he feels disrespected. We see the whole gamut of this when he’s on the phone with a local house painting company to ask them to come and put another coat on his house. The conversation doesn’t go well, resulting in Killian driving to the company’s store and vandalizing property. That escalates into Killian being brutally attacked by Ken Donaghue (Bradley Stryker), the nephew of the owner of the painting store (and his friends), while on his way to a bodybuilding competition. Killian still makes it to the competition, battered and bloodied, and winds up flexing and posing for the judges before passing out. Yet another outing that doesn’t go his way.
“Magazine Dreams” is a challenging watch primarily because it’s easy to feel Killian’s torment and frustration wherever he’s at. Most of the time, he just doesn’t realize his mistakes and missteps, yet it’s hard not to feel he had it coming when he experiences the repercussions of his actions. Throughout it all, Bynum and cinematographer Adam Arkpaw stay close to Killian, whether it’s monitoring every bulging abdominal muscle or capturing his confused and wounded expressions, and there’s never a moment where Majors doesn’t give 100%.
While watching “Magazine Dreams,” I couldn’t help but think of “Love Lies Bleeding” and “The Substance,” two movies from last year that also touch on body image – how characters see themselves and how they think others see them. Although Bynum’s movie was made before those two movies, there are similarities. It’s as if you threw “Taxi Driver” and “Uncut Gems” into a “Pumping Iron” blender with some creatine powder and drank it down on an empty stomach. Without a doubt, the film is unrelenting in its presentation and will put you through the wringer, while reminding you what a talent Major is, regardless of his real-life troubles.
