DNYUZ
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Television
    • Theater
    • Gaming
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
DNYUZ
No Result
View All Result
Home News

‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Pain Without Gain

March 20, 2025
in News
‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Pain Without Gain
504
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors) has one goal in life: to be the greatest bodybuilder on Earth. His focus is so single-minded that he has little else to talk about. About a third of the way into “Magazine Dreams,” the shy Killian, having finally worked up the courage to ask, takes Jessie (Haley Bennett), his colleague at a supermarket, on a date.

It doesn’t go well. At the restaurant, Killian startles Jessie with his casual disclosure of his mother’s violent death. (“Someone killed her. My dad did. He shot her and then he shot himself. That’s why they’re both dead.”) He orders enough protein to feed a platoon. Then he regales her with details of his regimen and his fear that others don’t respect him. “I’m going to place and get my pro card,” he tells Jessie. “Then I bet they won’t just walk by me.”

The too-briefly-seen Bennett has the Cybill Shepherd role in this strained effort to make “Taxi Driver” for bodybuilders. On the evidence, the writer-director, Elijah Bynum, has also studied Scorsese’s other work, particularly “The King of Comedy” (Killian writes obsessive letters to an idol who has made the cover of Men’s Health) and the Steadicam march to the boxing ring in “Raging Bull.”

Bynum supplies his own version of that shot midway through, when Killian, having just been savagely beaten by a group of men whose store he has wrecked, arrives at a bodybuilding competition still bloody. In a single, fluid camera movement, Killian enters the building and takes the stage, flexing his muscles and visibly struggling to grin through his pain. It’s an impressive show of bravado from both the actor and the director, albeit in a way that makes it difficult to tell who’s swaggering more — the character or the filmmaker.

“Magazine Dreams” bludgeons viewers to show off its sensitivity. Bynum piles on the misery in increasingly bogus ways. As big as Killian is, he has thin skin from the time a judge told him his deltoids were too small. He’s too naïve to realize that posting a video of his training online will invite nasty comments. After he crashes his car, a doctor informs him that he needs surgery. “I can’t have a scar,” Killian replies. “I’m a bodybuilder. Bodybuilders can’t have scars.” Perhaps at a loss as to how to resolve the drama in a less hackneyed manner, Bynum adds guns.

This macho posturing was apparent when “Magazine Dreams” played in January 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival, where Oscar prognosticators name-checked Majors as an awards contender. Actorly transformations into laconic, bulked-up, emotionally concussed giants are tough to resist. But the movie became damaged goods two months later when Majors was arrested and charged with assaulting and harassing his girlfriend at the time, Grace Jabbari. Majors, who denied the accusations, was found guilty on two of four counts that December and sentenced to probation and a year of domestic violence counseling.

Now “Magazine Dreams” arrives in theaters much later than originally planned, with a new distributor and some unfortunate real-life echoes. The first significant dialogue is spoken by a counselor (Harriet Sansom Harris), who tells Killian, “The state has mandated these sessions because they’re worried about your aggression.” (In a movie pumped with testosterone, Harris and Bennett are vital presences; Taylour Paige has the only other significant female role, as a prostitute.) Prone to outbursts, Killian has a go-to threat: “I’m going to split your skull open and drink your brains like soup.”

The line is meant to sound overwrought, but only a screenwriter could be amused.

The post ‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Pain Without Gain appeared first on New York Times.

Share202Tweet126Share
Judge Dismisses Social Media PR Expert From Blake Lively’s Justin Baldoni Lawsuit
News

Judge Dismisses Social Media PR Expert From Blake Lively’s Justin Baldoni Lawsuit

by Deadline
July 16, 2025

A federal judge has dismissed Blake Lively‘s claims against social media PR expert Jed Wallace, who she alleged was part ...

Read more
News

Stablecoins Are Eating The Dollar’s Lunch—Or Are They?

July 16, 2025
News

A Royal Course Prepares to Star at the British Open Again

July 16, 2025
News

Three current and former Louisiana police chiefs are federally charged in alleged visa fraud scheme

July 16, 2025
News

Fire at assisted-living facility ‘was destined to kill 50-plus people’: Chief

July 16, 2025
Nearly half of voters want a third party — just not Musk’s America Party, startling new poll finds

Nearly half of voters want a third party — just not Musk’s America Party, startling new poll finds

July 16, 2025
Dodgers Should Officially Cut Ties With Struggling $17 Million Outfielder

Dodgers Should Officially Cut Ties With Struggling $17 Million Outfielder

July 16, 2025
Canada Moves to Block Chinese Steel Now Shut Out of the U.S.

Canada Moves to Block Chinese Steel Now Shut Out of the U.S.

July 16, 2025

Copyright © 2025.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © 2025.