Magazine Dreams
Briarcliff Entertainment | Release Date: March 21, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The TimesKevin MaherDec 12, 2025
Majors plays the central character, Killian Maddox, with subtlety and sensitivity. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 2, 2025
Magazine Dreams itself, though flawed by a cumbersome flashback structure in which he is talking to a counsellor, has powerful moments and Majors is very good, especially in the bizarre scene when Killian insists on going onstage at a bodybuilding event just after being beaten up. Read full review
60
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaMar 27, 2025
Writer-director Elijah Bynum fills the screen with some impressive imagery, but it’s all in service of an ugliness that Magazine Dreams cops out on depicting. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 3, 2023
Powered by an incredible, devoted performance from Jonathan Majors, Magazine Dreams stumbles in its last act and repeats itself too often, but it is gripping and intense all the same. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 23, 2023
Killian’s spiral is intense and unpleasant but we’re not left at the end with much other than respect for technique. The film, like Killian, is all muscle. Read full review
59
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJan 25, 2023
Not just an incredible waste of a spectacular performance, but a film more caught up in ogling tragedy than dealing with it. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 21, 2023
A ruthlessly nihilistic beast of a movie, Elijah Bynum’s second feature Magazine Dreams provides a one-note powerhouse acting showcase for Majors, who ends up getting lost in the drawn-out second half as thematic points that initially sting get repeated ad nauseam and red herrings meant to shock become unnecessary side plots. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreApr 1, 2025
Magazine Dreams certainly isn’t inept, and Bynum, who wrote as well as directed it, summons a devastatingly spare atmosphere that’s broken up with some arrestingly dreamlike compositions when Killian arrives at a show or competition. But it consists of the same idea, underlined over and over. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMar 20, 2025
Magazine Dreams bludgeons viewers to show off its sensitivity. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrMar 20, 2025
The movie stands as a statement of a gifted, troubled actor’s intense commitment to his craft. Beyond that, it is a punishment. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJan 23, 2023
It fails as a character study because the murky inner workings of the character are all manifest, outwardly, in turns and attitudes that you can see from a mile away and are no wiser for being able to predict. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonMar 28, 2025
This downbeat drama is as overwrought as Killian’s muscles — it’s a steroidal portrait of a man in distress. Read full review
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