Jonathan Majors is a bodybuilder who longs to be seen for real in Magazine Dreams

When Jonathan Majors takes the stage of a bodybuilding competition in writer-director Elijah Bynum’s dazzling new drama Dreams Magazineit’s impossible not to feel like the film is in direct conversation with the way its main star’s fame has been wrapped in of the public fascination for her body. Dreams MagazineA deep dive into the life of an obsessive professional weightlifting wannabe who craves a shot at fitness fame is one of the toughest pieces of cinema to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. But since it’s breaking your heart and making you sweat, Dreams Magazine it’s also exposing many painful truths about what it means to be trapped in a world where objectification and dehumanization are the prices you have to pay for a shot at stardom.

Dreams Magazine tells the story of Killian Maddox (Majors), a terribly shy grocery store clerk who lives in a small house outside Los Angeles with his elderly grandfather William (Harrison Page) and spends his days fantasizing about what it would be like to honor the cover of magazines like fitness for men. When he’s not pushing his body to and beyond its breaking point in the gym, Killian is inhaling thousands of calories to keep going or recording videos of himself posing in his garage before nervously uploading them to his YouTube page with the Hope people do. notice it

It hurts Killian, who is heavily implicated somewhere on the spectrum throughout the film, more than he can ever put into words when people comment on his videos to make fun of how goofy and serious he is. But none of that pain really matters to Killian when he’s alone in his little room looking at the dozens of posters of models like Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O’Hearn) that are lovingly and carefully plastered on every inch of his walls and the ceiling. In Killian’s mind, the only people who could ever understand his passion and dedication to his fitness are other powerlifters like Brad, to whom he diligently and desperately writes various fan letters, though he is convinced that he doesn’t read them. And to some extent, Killian’s proven right as Dreams Magazine he delves into the difficulties he experiences while simply trying to exist in the world.

Though often socially inept to the point of ruining relationships, Killian has a nuanced understanding of how people view him and projects all sorts of ideas onto him due to his blackness and physique. But aside from Grandpa and his coworker Jessie (Haley Bennett), people rarely think about how Killian perceives them, and Dreams MagazineThe story delves into how that kind of existence can push people over the edge.

In addition to being a character study in which Majors throws himself into full force, Dreams Magazine it also straddles the gap between being a drama and a psychological thriller not too dissimilar. Taxi driver and, curiously, “Stan” by Eminem. Like Maddox, Majors vacillates between moments of suave vulnerability and steroid-fueled rage that play squarely on outsiders. racist assumptions about his lack of intelligence – emotional or otherwise. but every time Dreams Magazine focuses on Killian in scenes meant to leave you deeply uncomfortable or on edge, the movie clearly wants you to think about what, specifically, about him so many alarm bells are going off.

There’s a nervous, electric feeling of dread running through everything. Dreams Magazine that intensifies as the emotional peaks and valleys of Majors’ performance become more and more extreme. The film intentionally blurs Killian’s experience of reality as different people come into his life to hurt him or find sexual gratification in him. But there is always a very clear and precise visual clarity when Dreams Magazine focuses on highlighting your body in a way that reflects how people see you as something to be consumed rather than a person to be admired or respected.

The frenetic, spiraling quality that dominates his final acts is part of Dreams Magazine‘ history. It does, however, have the unfortunate side effect of turning characters like Taylour Paige’s Pink Coat and Sonny Valicenti’s James into newly arrived members of a Greek choir explaining some of the film’s already pretty self-evident central ideas. As she rushes through multiple shocking emotional climaxes, you get the feeling Dreams Magazine it could be a more taught and uniquely devastating movie if he settled on one. But like a psychological crucible meant to hit you hard and leave you reeling, Dreams Magazine it’s beyond effective and worth sitting through long after the credits roll.