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Magazine Dreams Movie Review

Magazine Dreams is a 2025 drama film directed by Elijah Bynum and starring Jonathan Majors. It’s a very repetitive, but well acted movie.

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A man looks after his ailing grandfather while trying to make it in the world of professional bodybuilding. This movie was first released at Sundance back in 2023, but they pushed back its theatrical release due to the writers’ strike and the allegations that surfaced against the actor. It was finally released two years later and it’s a pretty solid, but flawed drama.

It reminded me way too much of ‘Taxi Driver’ to the point that it pretty much felt like the same movie, but one that tackles the bodybuilding profession. I would have personally included more diverse tones and scenarios to set it apart from that iconic picture. This film lacked that one’s conviction and elegance, instead feeling way too repetitive in its structure and rather muted in its underwhelming ending. They should have ended it in a much stronger way.

With that being said, Magazine Dreams is worth seeing for a couple of excellent sequences and for Majors himself. The scene where he gets his revenge on a judge was very memorable whereas the implied gay scene was also very well filmed and striking. Majors is excellent in the role as he not only looks the part, but he also committed fully to the character’s numerous issues and obsessions, giving a fully-rounded, stellar performance.

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But the film failed to actually develop the character of Killian Maddox properly. They put way too much on their plate by making him deal with the issues of race, sexuality, body problems, vanity and anger issues. Any single one of these issues would have sufficed for one film, but piling them all up into one feature was excessive and it led to one giant mess that didn’t really work, though it was undeniably engaging to watch. The movie is well shot, solidly directed and very well scored, but the structure and pacing left a lot to be desired.