A Constant Visual Feast

There’s no doubting that Searchlight dumped Magazine Dreams as a direct reaction to the accusations against Jonathan Majors that led to his arrest and conviction, but in my mind, I like to think they did so because it’s a terrible movie that frankly benefitted from both his rising star at the time of its Sundance ’24 debut and from the thin atmosphere in Park City. Few movies this decade as bad as this have received such unwarranted praise from my peers. Guys: you’re wrong.

Magazine Dreams is a top-drawer embarrassment, and I fear that both its pre-and-post conviction arc will embolden its director, Elijah Bynum, to change nothing in his formula going forward beyond vetting his leads more thoroughly (and, I hope, forgoing riffing on Martin Scorsese movies). I’m not acutely neurodivergent, but on behalf of those who are, and what Majors’ character is meant to be, this movie disgusts me. 

You can read my full thoughts over at The A.V. Club.