HOLLYWOOD—There are performances that you watch, and they just stick with you. That is how I felt after watching Jonathan Majors in “Magazine Dreams.” It was film that had so much buzz about two years ago, but it was shelved after all that drama unfolded in Majors real life and it was like with the snap of a finger the actor’s career was over, but you can indeed always bounce back.
Majors gives an Oscar-caliber performance as Killian Maddox, a young man struggling to make the limelight as a professional bodybuilder. What is the problem? Killian is not all there and he’s struggling much more than people realize internally. His quest and thirst to become one of the notable names in professional bodybuilding like his icon, Brad Vanderhorn (Mike O’Hearn) is scary as hell.
Killian lives with his grandfather, who is a Vietnam War veteran. He takes care of his grandfather, while working at a grocery store part-time. He is not just socially awkward, but he has serious trouble interacting with people; it is almost stifling to watch because it’s apparent Killian wants to develop deeper emotional bonds as his counselor informs him, but he never quite gets there.
He has these crazy bouts of rage that are terrifying to watch. In one scene, he just destroys a paint store, after the owner refuses to return to his grandfather’s job and do it correctly. He tells lies and does it convincingly to his counselor, but whether she believes them or not is not fully fleshed out. He goes on a tirade after meeting his idol and discovering he’s not who he thought he would be.
Majors really envelops and dives heavily into this role that is not just a transformation it is exhilarating to watch. I have heard some people compare his character to that of Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.” I see slices of it, but Travis’ character was a bit more fascinating to watch because it was a slow spiral into insanity, and he’s deemed by many an anti-hero. That is not the case with Killian. He’s a bad guy; he’s disturbed and a lot of that might go back to his childhood where he witnessed his father kill his mother and them himself.
The movie gives brief slices of that chaos, but it’s not fully fleshed out to the degree that I wanted it to be. That could give the audience a deeper look into Killian’s psyche and potential motivation behind some of his actions. There is a scene where Killian takes out a cashier at his place of employment that just breaks your heart as a viewer. Awkward, disturbing, scary, riveting, the scene is so intense, yes off-putting you cannot take your eyes away from it.
“Magazine Dreams” is a dive into the realm of character study, witnessing a character who is not all there, and the audience getting glimpses of that behavior as it unravels from being off-putting, unsettling, to frightening. The pacing is quite solid for the first hour of the movie, and it slows down just a bit, but finds its footing again to deliver an ending that raises more questions than satisfying answers.
One thing that cannot be ignored about the movie is its dive into the world of social isolation and social interaction and how important it is to the development of human beings. One thing that cannot be ignored is that Jonathan Majors gives a performance that should be talked about, the problem is his scandal in real life has pushed it to the backburner.
