Majors has the muscle to lift ‘Magazine Dreams’
Almost everyone has a dream, a goal, a mission they want to achieve to reach a level of self-esteem that enables them to be seen. For Killian Maddox, it’s becoming a bodybuilding cover boy like his idol, Brad Vanderhorn, a preening hunk of muscle and brawn purporting to be the epitome of physical fitness when in all likelihood he, like Killian, is slowly destroying himself through a combination of diet, steroids and obsession. An inhuman pursuit, you could say, to appear superhuman.
That irony isn’t lost upon writer-director Elijah Bynum, whose “Magazine Dreams” daringly paints a disturbing portrait of a man who simply wants to be accepted and respected. It’s just that he’s not going about it the right way. Instead of the admiration Killian seeks, his hulking size and quiet demeanor frighten the very people whose love he craves.
I often found myself identifying with Killian and his bafflement over why folks either fear him or regard him as invisible simply because he’s different. It’s never alluded to but it’s not a reach to assume that he, like me, is on the autism spectrum. As a result, he gets easily frustrated as he struggles to communicate with neurotypicals, who unwittingly twist his social awkwardness into an indicator of impending danger.
As portrayed by Jonathan Majors, Killian is in actuality a gentle giant who misses his deceased parents dearly and dotes on his fast-fading, Vietnam-vet granddad, William (Harrison Page). Well, whenever he’s not meeting with his court-appointed shrink (Harriet Sansom Harris); at his job stocking grocery shelves; or working on increasing his deltoids for the next bodybuilding competition, the one that he’s sure will make him the fitness poster boy he longs to become.
What everyone, including Killian, fails to see is his rapidly declining grasp of reality. He may look strong and fit on the outside, but inside his grandiose delusions gnaw at him like a cancer. Maybe it’s the steroids, or maybe it’s just an overwhelming need to be recognized as something more than “a big, scary Black man.” Whatever it is, it’s waging an escalating war on his psyche.
Majors renders this inner turmoil to perfection, often without words and even more impressively without overdramatizing. But there’s never any doubt his Killian (emphasis on “Kill”) is a ticking time bomb that’s just one or two more slights away from exploding into violence, against others or himself.
There’s a lot of Travis Bickel in Killian, just as there’s a lot of “Taxi Driver” in “Magazine Dreams,” right down to a disastrous date between our antihero and the co-worker (Haley Bennett) he’s long been crushing on. De Niro’s got nothing on Majors, who sells his character’s escalating madness with unflinching authority, but not without earning empathy and compassion for a man whose life has been nothing but a succession of disappointments and tragedies.
There are times you’re tempted to look away, but Majors is so compelling and charismatic that he doesn’t allow it. Just don’t expect to know Killian any better at the end than you do at the beginning. That’s because he doesn’t know, either. Is he gay? Is he straight? Is he psychotic? Is he just in need of a hug?
To their credit, Bynum and Majors constantly keep you guessing over what exactly it is behind Killian’s intense drive to achieve even the tiniest fragments of fame. In many ways, his unrealistic pursuits remind me a lot of another Scorsese-De Niro flick, “The King of Comedy,” in which the latter played Rupert Pupkin, a delusional loner going to extremes to become a TV talk show host like his Johnny Carson-esque role model. And like Pupkin, Killian exhibits stalker-like behavior on his quest to win favor with his idol, in this case, the famed Brad Vanderhorn (actor-bodybuilder Mike O’Hearn), with more than 400 magazine covers to his credit.
The two men, unbeknownst to Brad, are on a collision course that isn’t likely to end well. Or is it? I won’t say, but I was a tad disappointed by Bynum’s noncommital approach in a climax that first plays out inside Killian’s mind before revealing what actually happened. It doesn’t work, and in many ways, it’s a betrayal to audiences who’ve invested nearly two hours in a thriller that turns wishy-washy when it matters most.
It’s a problem but not one as immediate as the subpar job Bynum and editor Jon Otazua do in splicing a film that suffers from scenes that are either overly long or noticeably abbreviated, such as is the case with Killian’s underdeveloped run-ins with the law. Ditto for his feud with a trio of racist white thugs looking to settle a score by ganging up on Killian and beating him with a lead pipe.
That assault is disturbing, but that’s not the most shocking moment in a film replete with them. No, that would be the one you’d least expect – the bodybuilding competitions. Considering the contestants are predominantly Black, it’s unsettling to see them standing, five or six abreast, in front of old, out-of-shape white judges commanding them to perform poses that showcase their physiques as if they were slaves on a trading block. It’s cringe-inducing. As is Bynum’s dead-on depiction of the false promises of the so-called “American dream.”
A “dream” for whom? And what drastic measures must one be willing to resort to make it a reality? Must one sell their soul in the process? Bynum offers only vague answers, but he definitely stimulates thought on the subject, a rarity in this age of the mindless blockbuster. It’s not a comfortable sit to be sure, which – in addition to Majors’ domestic assault case – might explain why it’s taken more than two years for “Magazine Dreams” to land a distribution deal in the wake of winning effusive praise at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Well, now it’s here. And despite its many flaws, it should not be missed for no other reason than Majors’ sublime acting in a film that never quite matches his level of expertise. Yet, it largely succeeds in demonstrating that racism in America is still alive, well and continuing to flex its considerable muscle.
Movie review
Magazine Dreams
Rated: R for violent content, drug use, sexual material, nudity and language
Cast: Jonathan Majors, Harrison Page, Haley Bennett and Mike O’Hearn
Director: Elijah Bynum
Writer: Elijah Bynum
Runtime: 122 minutes
Where: In theaters March 21
Grade: B-
