Magazine Dreams

by Mike McGranaghan

If you’re going to rip off a movie, Taxi Driver is a good one to choose. Then again, doing so sets you up for (probably unfavorable) comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic. Writer/director Elijah Bynam’s Magazine Dreams follows the basic template of Taxi Driver, simply setting it against a different backdrop. The film garnered some positive reactions when it screened at film festivals in 2023, only to have its distribution deal fall through following the arrest of star Jonathan Majors for misdemeanor assault of his girlfriend. Now it’s finally reaching theaters, and I don’t think playing a tightly wound borderline psychopath is going to do the actor’s career any favors.

Majors plays Killian Maddox, a bodybuilder obsessed with someday being ripped enough to get his picture on the cover of a magazine. He eats, sleeps, and breathes bodybuilding, frequently writing pathetic fan letters to his hero, Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O’Hearn). In fact, Killian is sufficiently consumed with his passion that it’s made him socially awkward, as supermarket coworker Jessie (Haley Bennett) discovers when he asks her out on a disastrous date. Somewhere, Cybill Shepherd is sighing with recognition.

Magazine Dreams is so determined to let you know how socially inept Killian is that it pointlessly has him hook up with a prostitute (Taylour Paige) just to reinforce the idea. The character is also awkward with his court-ordered counselor (Harriet Samson Harris), in case we don’t get the point. The movie is generally a series of two repeating scenes, one in which Killian is preoccupied with his own body, and one where he acts weird around someone else. The cycle becomes repetitive.

We all know what happened to Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. This is the area where the movie is most frustrating in aping the earlier picture. We’re told Killian has a violent past. Of course, after all his uncomfortable interactions, there has to be something that lights the fuse on his repressed anger. Fair enough, except that the screenplay doesn’t convincingly build to what he ends up doing. His actions seem contrived. Worse, it chickens out on fully exploring the ramifications of antisocial personality disorder, choosing instead to shoot for a redemptive arc that proves almost laughably implausible.

To his credit, Majors is fully committed to the role, both physically and emotionally. He disappears into character, genuinely coming off as a single-minded man with narcissistic tendencies. But because the story is repetitive, Killian becomes someone we want to get away from. He’s actively unpleasant, as opposed to darkly fascinating. We should have some reason to care about this guy and we don’t.

Magazine Dreams treads the same ground for two straight hours. That makes those two hours feel more like ten. Majors is undeniably a gifted actor, but he can’t overcome the story’s significant flaws. And watching him play someone who can’t control their temper hits a little too close to home to be entertaining.

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