Sundance Review: MAGAZINE DREAMS Sees Jonathan Majors Play a Disturbed Aspiring Bodybuilder
One of the most buzzed-about movies at Sundance this year is a movie titled Magazine Dreams, which stars Jonathan Majors (Loki, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania), so of course I had to see it! I knew nothing about this movie before going in, and it told an insanely heavy story that I wasn’t prepared for.
Majors plays a character named Killian Maddox, who is he is obsessed with bodybuilding and has a fierce dream of becoming a famous bodybuilder that will grace the covers of bodybuilder magazines. However, Killian is mentally unstable due to the past traumas in his life and this makes accomplishing his goals and living a normal life in general very difficult for a variety of reasons.
People try to help him on his journey, but he doesn’t really take any of the advice or embrace the help and he finds himself spiraling into a very dark place and unable to control his anger and actions.
The synopsis for the film reads: “Killian Maddox lives with his ailing veteran grandfather, obsessively working out between court-mandated therapy appointments and part-time shifts at a grocery store where he harbors a crush on a friendly cashier. Though Killian’s struggles to read social cues and maintain control of his volatile temper amplify his sense of disconnection amid a hostile world, nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of bodybuilding superstardom, not even the doctors who warn that he’s causing permanent damage to his body with his quest.”
This is an extremely heavy movie and while it’s a very well-made film, it’s hard to watch. This man is going through such a hard journey and things aren’t easy for him with the life he’s been dealt. Then, every decision he makes is the opposite of the decision you want to see him make, so it gets very frustrating at times, but it’s supposed to be.
Now, while the subject matter is rough to get through, Jonathan Majors gives a phenomenal performance! He’s such a great actor and this might be the best performance of his career so far. He completely disappears into this role, and I was in awe of what he brought to this character in the movie. He delivered such an intense amount of energy and it was scary at times, and that was mixed with moments of charm and kindness.
The movie was written and directed by Elijah Bynum, and the description explains that he “masterfully reveals the duality of Killian’s existence, depicting the toll of a toxic stew of self-imposed pressure to meet unrealistic expectations and hypermasculine role modeling while simultaneously conveying his genuine, if fraught, efforts to fulfill an underlying desire for human connection. Jonathan Majors, in a committed performance of tremendous physicality, powerfully embodies the lengths Killian will go in his desperate need to be seen. Magazine Dreams is a provocative film that respects the dignity of its protagonist as it pulls no punches in portraying the most physically and emotionally painful moments of his darkening odyssey.”
This movie is not fun to watch, but if you’re a fan of Jonathan Majors and you want to see an amazing performance from him, then the movie is worth checking out.
