Jonathan Majors gives one of the best performances you’ll ever see in Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams.

Bynum’s sophomore feature (co-produced by Nightcrawler filmmaker Dan Gilroy) is centred around an aspiring bodybuilder, Killian Maddox (Majors), who works as a bag boy at a local supermarket when he isn’t pushing himself at the gym or demonstrating his muscular build at competitions. Maddox takes his passion for body building very seriously, which also means that Killian eats, sleeps, and breathes his aspirations. He obsesses over former body building champ Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O’Hearn), including writing letters and leaving voicemails for his star, and his dedication isolates him from others. Maddox also has a sensitive and violent temper that can be easily triggered. This all-encompassing unpredictability, which is also attributed to his mental illness, leads Killian towards a downward spiral that has others (including the audience) concerned for his well-being.

Given Majors’ off-screen controversies of aggressive behaviour and alleged assaults, the parallels between Killian and the actor (seen previously in The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) are eerie and uncomfortable. However, the character itself is complex and complicated apart from those similarities. Majors, resembling a beast when he’s showing how Killian’s dedication can be detrimental, does an excellent job identifying with his character’s motivations, his deeply flawed logic and gut-wrenching problem solving. When Maddox is feeling helpless, the bodybuilder reaches for the most extreme choices. While we disagree with Killian, we understand him thanks to Majors’ mental and physical stamina. After the hour mark, Killian goes past a “point of no return”, and the audience can’t help but watch the rest of the movie through squinted eyes with our hands clasped on our temples. Because of Bynum’s uncompromising  and fully-realized filmmaking, movie goers are along for the ride through every twist and turn.

While a very tough watch, Magazine Dreams is a rewarding front runner for the best movie of the year.

**********

Do You Tweet? Follow These Tweeple:

Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie