By John Corrado

When Magazine Dreams premiered at Sundance in 2023, it was touted as a defining role for Jonathan Majors, who was instantly in the Oscar conversation when Searchlight Pictures picked up the film and positioned it for an awards run.

And then everything fell apart. Majors was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend (and subsequently convicted), leading to him being dropped from his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Searchlight dumping the film.

It’s important to separate art from artist (in my opinion), but it’s nearly impossible in the case of Magazine Dreams. The charges against Majors not only impacted the film’s release – it’s finally coming out after being acquired by Briarcliff Entertainment, who handled The Apprentice – but also make it even more eery and disturbing to watch now.

Majors is playing a character scarily prone to rage, offering a stunning transformation that now leaves us wondering how much of a stretch it was for him to play. The actor is tapping into something incredibly dark in his portrayal of Killian Maddox, who dreams of being a champion bodybuilder who graces the cover of a magazine. And it’s an undeniably brilliant performance from a deeply troubled actor, in a film that is still worthy of praise.

Director Elijah Bynum, in only his second feature, crafts a visceral and disturbing character study of an unstable man desperate to leave his mark on the world. We’re never quite sure where the film is going, because Killian himself is such an off-kilter presence. All we know is that he is spiralling down, and the film will take us to the depths of hell with him.

In Killian’s mind, he’s already a big deal. Which is why he’s so frustrated by the world not treating him this way. Killian has a desperate need for validation and attention, and can’t tolerate anything that feels like rejection. At home, he cares for his ailing grandfather (Harrison Page). But his main focus is on his own body, controlling what he eats and obsessively sculpting muscle. He injects himself with steroids that are destroying his body for short term gain, entering local male bodybuilder competitions where he preens for the approval of the judges.

Majors not only undergoes an impressive physical transformation with all of his bulging muscles, but he compellingly disappears behind the mannerisms and body language of the character as well. Killian is socially awkward to the degree that we are uncomfortable watching him. In one sequence, he goes on a date with a co-worker (played by Haley Bennett) from the grocery store where he works. The tension lies in Bennett’s subtle display of how uncomfortable her character feels, with Killian lacking the social awareness to realize how badly things are going.

As a portrait of loneliness, isolation, and poorly treated mental illness, Magazine Dreams is terrifying but also tragic. We are locked in with Killian for the entire two hours, watching every mistake, stumble, and dangerous decision that he makes. Much of it is internal, not a soul likely knows the extent of what he is going through, until he starts lashing out and becoming violent. We see how a situation unfolds, and then the version that he tells to his therapist (Harriet Sansom Harris).

The story could draw comparisons to Todd Phillips’ Joker, which itself drew comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. All of these films have something in common, because Killian Maddox is a similar lonely male archetype to Arthur Fleck, Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin. But it’s an eerily believable character, the type that we read about in the news after it’s too late.

We simply exist in the same space as Majors’ Killian for two hours, as Bynum envelopes us in his dark world. It’s a taxing, emotionally draining experience. But one rendered with considerable technical skill and cinematic flair. Adam Arkapaw’s cinematography is striking in its compositions, lighting, and use of long takes. There is a glow to how he shoots the glistening, half-naked bodies in the competition scenes, while also capturing the grit of Killian’s world outside of it. A one-take sequence of our lead entering a building and making his way through hallways and to the stage is masterfully pulled off.

It’s obviously a very challenging film to watch, due to this noxious mix of unsettling subject matter and nearly suffocating atmosphere, not to mention the disturbing real life charges against its lead. But it’s hard not to recommend Magazine Dreams for viewers able to handle the intensity of the experience and Majors’ admittedly great performance.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Magazine Dreams opens exclusively in theatres in limited released on March 21st. It’s being distributed in Canada by Briarcliff Entertainment.