‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Jonathan Majors Shoulders The Weight of This Incel, Bodybuilder Drama [Sundance]

“Sharper” opens with a fake out—in its own title. A dictionary definition fades up on the screen, declaring “sharper” as a noun that means “one who lives by their wits.” This little bit of cheeky word play is a harbinger for the never-ending rug pulls and elaborate deceptions to come in this con artist thriller, directed by longtime TV director Benjamin Caron and written by the team of Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka.

After making history in 2022 with “CODA,” its first world premiere to win Best Picture, the Sundance Film Festival had a slightly disappointing Oscar tally for 2023. The festival didn’t make the Best Picture cut, but “Living” landed an Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (Bill Nighy) nomination.

Caught somewhere between a movie and a series, “Willie Nelson & Family” doubles down on the history and mythology of its namesake to stretch the latter into what would have been better served as the former.  Honest, introspective, yet rarely revelatory, the anthology often mistakes the comprehensive for the essential, and while it succeeds in explaining Willie Nelson to its audience, that’s about all it does.

There is no shortage of stories about fathers and their kids, specifically sons. But in Justin Chon’s (“Gook,” “Ms.

Jonathan Majors pushed his body to its full capacity while preparing for the role of dedicated bodybuilder Killian Maddox in the upcoming movie Magazine Dreams.

Ria Khan (Priya Kansara, sparkling in her feature debut) likes to believe that she’s no ordinary British-Pakistani teenager. Her dreams, for instance, always seem outsized — she doesn’t just want to learn martial arts but rather perfect it so well that she can become a world-class professional stunt woman.

Based on the 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift” by Alexander Maksik, set just after the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, “Drift” aims for impressionistic insight but is ultimately manipulative and reductive. Maksik’s screenplay, which he co-wrote with Susanne Farrell, sees its heroine Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”) as nothing more than a vessel to explore an outsider’s view of the trauma inflicted by war.

Spanning three time periods and two continents, “Past Lives,” the directorial debut of Celine Song (“Endlings”), tells the story of two childhood friends and sweethearts pulled apart by time, circumstance, and fate. They come back together and end in a way that might subvert the romantic fantasies of the audience — but this only shows the important roles people play in our lives, even if it’s not what we expected.  READ MORE: 25 Most Anticipated Films At The Sundance Film Festival Disembodied voices start us off in “Past Lives,” making guesses at who Nora (Greta Lee), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), and Arthur (John Magaro) are to each other as they sit at an NYC bar.

In Greek mythology, it holds that for a time, gods and mortals mingled freely, creating demigods whose sole aim was to prove their worth so they might join their celestial kin. For the Greeks, the gods who ruled on mount Olympus formed the idealized version of humans—often possessing super strength to match their perfect physiques.

“From the YouTube sensations…” isn’t exactly the phrase you want to hear going into a film — horror or otherwise. This set-up brings a certain amount of baggage that the audience will be hard-pressed to shake, regardless of the filmmaker’s talent.

Sundance U.S. dramatic competition jury members — including Marlee Matlin– chose to leave after the festival fell short of providing proper captioning for deaf and hearing impaired audience members during the Eccles Theatre premiere of Magazine Dreams last night.

Richard Pryor used to do a bit on the differences between Black and white churches – one that was often revised and revisited by his many imitators in the decades that followed. But one thing he got particularly right, beyond the lameness of the hymns and the restrained quality of the ministers, is the eerie quiet of white churches, the way that the fires of hell and the sins of man can be described in tones barely more threatening than a hot dish recipe.

“Inspirations for Kang — Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar. Start there,” Jonathan Majors told us at Deadline’s Sundance studio recently about his influences for playing Marvel’s next giant villain, Kang the Conqueror.

a comprehensive examination of every factor, internal and external, that afflicts Killian, as well as their possible solutions, “Magazine Dreams” begins to feel convoluted with too many threads to rein in, all of them with relevant themes.Many of these subplots revolve around Killian expressing frustration and anger against a world that renders him invisible via self-destructive acts, which in turn confront him with police brutality and bigotry. But he also searches for affection in the arms of a sex worker (Taylour Paige) and even engages in a homosexual encounter to try to heal his intimate wounds.

With her breakout turn as a soulful queer rancher in Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” Lily Gladstone proved herself to be one of the most unique and affecting performers of the last decade. Although she has worked steadily since it’s ridiculous that it’s taken this long for another role that really allows her tremendous talent to shine.  READ MORE: 25 Most Anticipated Movies At The 2023 Sundance Film Festival Co-written by director Erica Tremblay (“Reservation Dogs”), whose short “Little Chief” also starred Gladstone, and Miciana Alise, the family drama “Fancy Dance” explores the systematic mishandling by the police and the FBI of missing and murdered indigenous women.

While introducing “Radical,” director Christopher Zalla (“Sangre de Mi Sangre”/”Blood of My Blood”) said it was a labor of love. In addition to that, he said it’s a “movie about what happens when kids are empowered.” And while the film definitely explores this in a well-crafted display of filmmaking, it also leaves a bit of a dark shadow in the minds of those allergic to the notion that your mind is all you need to succeed.

Magazine Dreams is a drama and second feature directed by Elijah Bynum, which stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylor Paige, and Harrison Page

Jonathan Majors and Magazine Dreams flexed some big muscles tonight at the drama’s Sundance Film Festival premiere with the actor drawing a standing ovation.