MAGAZINE DREAMS

It should come as no surprise that Magazine Dreams is being compared to Taxi Driver. Both films are about lonely obsessive unstable men that are prone to violent outbursts. At this point, what movie about lonely men isn’t inspired by Taxi Driver in some way? It’s almost lazy to make that comparison in 2025 but there are so many similar beats, moments, and shots between both films that it has to be mentioned.

 

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

These are just the visual similarities. Both Travis Bickle and Jonathan Majors’ Killian Maddux have an unhealthy desensitized obsession with pornography (Travis frequents porn theaters and Killian casually watches online porn at home). A major difference between Magazine Dreams and Taxi Driver is the presence of the internet. Killian Maddux spends a good amount of time on online forums which is the film’s attempt at touching on incel culture and it’s negative effect on young men (casting real life bodybuilder Mike O’Hearn was a nice touch considering he’s such a meme-fied figure in online incel/sigma culture). It’s almost like Magazine Dreams is yet another movie showing you what Travis Bickle would be doing with his spare time if he existed in the age of the internet (Manodrome, The Beast, Fight Club, Paul Dano’s Riddler in The Batman, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, etc etc). The difference between Magazine Dreams and most of the aforementioned movies is that Killian Maddux is a bit more rooted in reality compared to The Riddler or The Joker. I say Magazine Dreams is a bit more rooted in reality and not completely rooted because at a certain point it starts to feel like a 2 hour snuff film. The basic story follows a mentally unstable young man obsessed with being a champion body builder. Being a young man comes with challenges. Being a young Black man comes with a few more potential challenges. Life throws you curveballs even when you coast through it on default mode. But as the movies goes on you start to ask yourself; “what else could possibly go wrong with this young man’s life” …and then it gets worse. I don’t want to spoil anything but if you list everything that happens to Killian in the movie, you sort of say to yourself; “Jesus christ. Is this guy gonna catch a break?” At a certain point it stops feeling like a movie and more like Black male struggle/torture porn. I’m starting to understand why the director of the Iron Claw chose to exclude Chris Von Erich from the tragic Von Erich story. Would anyone, especially non-wrestling fans, want to sit through a movie where five brothers all die in a short span of time? It really happened but it just seems so unbelievable that it could be seen as distracting. Killian Maddux is the insect slowly having his limbs torn apart or burned under a magnifying glass by a sadistic little kid. To be clear - that’s not necessarily a negative criticism. Perhaps that was the director’s goal. This isn’t the type of movie you watch to “enjoy” and not everything needs to be easily digested.

The Substance /
Love Lies Bleeding /
Magazine Dreams

This would pair well Love Lies Bleeding, The Substance, and other recent films that show the dark side of obsession. Love Lies Bleeding and Magazine are first cousins in that both movies use bodybuilding and steroids as a backdrop. But like I said before – Magazine Dreams is rooted in reality whereas the other films straddle the line between reality and total fantasy.

Love Lies Bleeding / Magazine Dreams

Love Lies Bleeding / Magazine Dreams

It also makes sense that Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy produced this. At times, Magazine Dreams feels like Nightcrawler if Lou didn’t win in the end.

I feel obligated to share my thoughts on Magazine Dreams. I have an immense sense of hometown pride and the director is from my hometown (read my thoughts on Annie Baker’s Janet Planet while you’re here). I love seeing anyone from Amherst, Massachusetts doing great things. Due to Jonathan Major’s legal issues this movie almost got shelved which would have been unfortunate for all the other people involved in the making of it (they didn’t do anything wrong, so why should their work have to be “cancelled”?)

I don’t mind folks using this movie as a jump-off to talk about the Venn Diagram between mental health, gender and race as long as folks are aware this story is not in any way a representation of the average Black male experience. If anything, one could draw a parallel between the events in the movie and the issues surrounding Jonathan Majors' real life.

THE REHEARSAL + EDVARD MUNCH (1974)

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

I think Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is one of the best television shows to come out in a very long time. It’s funny, weird, interesting and a genuine attempt at trying to do something unique (especially for HBO). Everything that’s good that needs to be said about it has already been said over these last few years. We don’t need another review gushing over how great Nathan Fielder is. This isn’t a review or a critique of the show. This is just a random observation/coincidental connection I noticed after rewatching the last two seasons.

Much like my Joe Pera/Chantal Akerman post, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Fielder’s work and the films of Peter Watkins. Specifically, his Edvard Munch biopic.

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Peter Watkins is hardly the first director to utilize cinema-verite/mocu-mentary style zoom-ins or shots of characters looking directly in to the camera. But the fact that Edvard Munch and The Rehearsal both fall under that fake documentary style of filmmaking that we’re all so familiar with today (The Office, Parks and Rec etc), makes the coincidental connection slightly more stronger in my eyes.

If you’re a fan of recent stuff like The Rehearsal, How To with John Wilson or even Nathan For You, you might want to delve in to the cinema of Peter Watkins. I haven’t found any evidence that Nathan Fielder is familiar with the work of Watkins. He probably doesn’t even know who he is. I just think it’s kind of cool how similar some of the shots are and how Fielder could be a potential gateway to other lesser-known filmmakers…  

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN

Much like My Winnipeg and Cowards Bend The Knee, Brand Upon The Brain serves as a personal journal for Guy Maddin. On one level we’re watching him work out some unresolved childhood traumas. The basic premise of the film concerns a young man (“Guy”) returning to the orphanage he was raised in to confront his past. On another level, Brand Upon The Brain is another Guy Maddin cinematic collage in the vein of something like Pulp Fiction where he proudly and openly wears his cinematic influences on his sleeve.

As much as I love this movie, there isn’t much to say about it that hasn’t already been said in previous posts (click here & here to my thoughts on My Winnipeg and Cowards Bend The Knee). I’m just using this post as an excuse to share all the cinematic comparisons I’ve made that have been wasted on twitter over the years (I’m permanently shadowbanned so almost no one sees what I tweet anymore). 

It makes sense that Maddin is so heavily influenced by David Lynch (click here to read more). If you watch Lynch’s early short films you can see a lot of premature ideas that would eventually turn in to features like Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Inland Empire. The same applies to Guy Maddin. Maddin will make a short film but will still cut & paste the same shots or lines of dialogue in to his features. Lynch revisits a lot of same territory over and over from a slightly different perspective. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are almost the same thing with different actors and slightly different approaches. Lynch has gone back in to the Twin Peaks universe multiple times over the last 30 years and the protagonist in The Grandmother looks quite similar to Robert Blake’s mystery man in Lost Highway. 

The Grandmother / Lost Highway

Maddin is always referencing his childhood (My Winnipeg & Brand Upon The Brain), his loyalty to Canada (Cowards Bend The Knee and Saddest Music In The World), his not-so hidden sexual perversions and his love of David Lynch.

he [David Lynch] is kind of doing what painting has been doing for years, and I’m not saying that his images are painterly, but that he is doing with narrative what painting does - Guy Maddin, ScreenAnarchy.com

The cinematic collage aspect in Brand Upon The Brain extends way beyond Lynch. I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already shared (click here to read my post on the connections between Lynch and Maddin). Maddin pulls from Bunuel, Fellini, Dreyer and Murnau.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc / Brand Upon The Brain

L'age D'or /
Brand Upon The Brain

my first inclination was to kind of remake Fellini’s I VITELLONI - Guy Maddin, Slant Magazine

I Vitelloni / Brand Upon The Brain

I watch a movie and I pretend Luis Buñuel is sitting beside me - Guy Maddin, TheAVClub.com

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz / Brand Upon The Brain

Un Chien Andalou / Brand Upon The Brain

Mexican Bus Ride / Brand Upon The Brain

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz / Brand Upon The Brain

I feel kind of Buñuelian - Guy Maddin, Offscreen.com

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz /
Brand Upon The Brain

Un Chien Andalou /
Brand Upon The Brain

I love Murnau more than anything - Guy Maddin, The Columbia Journal

The Haunted Castle / Brand Upon The Brain

Brand Upon The Brain is most definitely not an intro or even a mid-level Guy Maddin film. It's jumpy, chaotic, silent and intentionally schizophrenic. If you can make it through stuff like Saddest Music In The World or My Winnipeg, then this should be the next level.