‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Jonathan Majors Is Fantastic as a Bodybuilder Grappling with a Self-Destruction Borne of Rage

When an independent filmmaker wants to hypnotize an audience, show off his chops, and make a grand statement, a surefire way to do it — at least if he has the talent ­— is to create his own version of a “Pulp Fiction”-meets-“Boogie Nights” violence-hanging-in-the-air climax set to a succulent needle drop. In “Magazine Dreams,” the writer-director Elijah Bynum (“Hot Summer Nights”), in his second feature, creates a splendid example of one of those scenes. It’s when his antihero, a bodybuilder named Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors), has started to fall apart — though you could say that he’s been falling… Read Full Article