Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
"Magazine Dreams" is a story about a Black amateur bodybuilder struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. This is director Elijah Bynum's second film as his first feature was "Hot Summer Nights" which I thought was pretty bad. Here, this is an improvement and his best work so far. The film is filled with angry tension and it's an interesting character study of a man dealing with violence, desiring fame, and connection.
The camerawork was amazing and the soundtrack choices were pretty good. Some of these elements reminded me of Nightcrawler or Whiplash. Jonathan Majors gave a amazing performance for his character. After seeing him in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco", I knew this was an actor I wanted to keep my eyes out and now, this may be his best performance to date. The writing aspects were pretty interesting and it's impactful tone helps to explore from beginning to end.
For characters, most characters were written well and while some background characters felt underdeveloped, I feel like it was unintentional for the perspective of the main character. Some of the pacing could have used some work. There were a few scenes that did feel a bit silly like when Majors character gets assaulted by a group of man that didn't felt the tone and felt out of place.
Overall, this film was pretty good and one of the surprises from Sundance.
Rating: B.
"Magazine Dreams" is a story about a Black amateur bodybuilder struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. This is director Elijah Bynum's second film as his first feature was "Hot Summer Nights" which I thought was pretty bad. Here, this is an improvement and his best work so far. The film is filled with angry tension and it's an interesting character study of a man dealing with violence, desiring fame, and connection.
The camerawork was amazing and the soundtrack choices were pretty good. Some of these elements reminded me of Nightcrawler or Whiplash. Jonathan Majors gave a amazing performance for his character. After seeing him in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco", I knew this was an actor I wanted to keep my eyes out and now, this may be his best performance to date. The writing aspects were pretty interesting and it's impactful tone helps to explore from beginning to end.
For characters, most characters were written well and while some background characters felt underdeveloped, I feel like it was unintentional for the perspective of the main character. Some of the pacing could have used some work. There were a few scenes that did feel a bit silly like when Majors character gets assaulted by a group of man that didn't felt the tone and felt out of place.
Overall, this film was pretty good and one of the surprises from Sundance.
Rating: B.