Sundance Film Festival 2023 Recap

By Jake Skubish

Magazine Dreams

When Jonathan Majors appeared on screen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, it was abundantly clear that he was an acting talent to be reckoned with. What was not clear was his impending transformation into a physical supernova whose power as a thespian is equally matched by his jaw-dropping physique. Yet that is where Majors now stands in the morally messy and undeniably impressive Sundance drama Magazine Dreams.

The film stars Majors as Killian Maddox, an aspiring bodybuilder struggling to find recognition in the industry while suffering from severe mental health issues. He’s a tortured soul, full of rage made terrifying by his overwhelming frame. It’s a showy character study, but Majors never loses the sympathetic quality he had as Montgomery in the more poetic, subdued Last Black Man. Unlike in that film Majors is required to carry nearly every frame of Magazine Dreams, and he’s a captivating performer even as Maddox’s actions and mental state become tougher to stomach. Simply put: Majors is an actor you cannot look away from, and with Magazine Dreams he’s found the perfect project to match that aura. Whether the film ultimately finds its footing on the tightrope walk of its narrative is another question, but Majors’ status as one of our greatest working actors is never in doubt.

Majors is going to get a ton of praise for this performance, and he should. But I hope he doesn’t overshadow too much what a striking directorial showcase this is from Elijah Bynum. Yes, the reference points are obvious; elements of Taxi Driver and Whiplash are transparent influences. Yet where a film like Joker felt like utter Scorsese pastiche, miming the Travis Bickle arc without adding any new perspective of its own, Magazine Dreams exists in the mold of Taxi Driver while announcing a genuinely exciting directorial voice. There are a handful of shots in the film — the long take of a bloodied Killian entering a competition and a shot obfuscating Taylour Paige’s character’s (credited as “Pink Coat”) face as she sees Killian’s body are two that stand out — that are impressive visual flourishes in service of the story.

Bynum manages to make Magazine Dreams both an archetypical portrait of a disturbed man slowly losing his mind and an exploration of how that man’s alienation is exacerbated by broader forces of exploitation and othering. What I wrote earlier, that Killian’s capacity for rage is terrifying, is true. Yet Bynum forces the viewer to confront how quickly the pain of a Black man is made to be seen as a threat, and how Killian’s body is under constant scrutiny. I was underwhelmed by Bynum’s debut Hot Summer Nights, but I cannot wait to see what he has in store next.

Magazine Dreams has not yet sold to a distributor out of Sundance, which I find to be somewhat perplexing. Sure, the film is quite dark, but Majors is about to be a massive star with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Creed III on the horizon. Perhaps Bynum and his producers are waiting to sell the film until after those blockbusters debut and any film starring Majors becomes a project studios want to be attached to. I don’t know. But I do know that there will be no shortage of towering performances from Majors in the near future.

Rating: 4/5

Shortcomings

Adapted from Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel, Randall Park’s directorial debut Shortcomings offers a window into the lives of a group of directionless, bicoastal individuals fitfully seeking love and purpose. The film offers little more than that, and I don’t necessarily mean that as a knock against Park. He provides a steady hand to Shortcomings, a solid debut with little to marvel at but much to appreciate. The story could have been tighter and the characters more developed; then again, doesn’t that mirror the unfocused path of these characters’ quarter-life crises?

Justin H. Min plays the lead role as Ben, a film geek managing a Bay Area movie theater. Ben is in an unhappy relationship with his longtime girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki), and when she gets an internship in New York it offers a chance for them to step back and assess their relationship — or perhaps just drift apart. Meanwhile, Ben’s best friend Alice (Sherry Cola) maneuvers her own resistance to committing to a long-term relationship.

Shortcomings is deliberately unsettled in its conclusion; Park emphasizes the subtle frustrations these characters’ express with their choices in life rather than forcing them to have some unearned, grand epiphany. I appreciated the impulse to break from the typical coming-of-age, figuring-out-who-you-are model, but it’s a model because it works. Shortcomings ends up feeling a bit scattered, and less in sum than in its individual parts.

If there’s anything to celebrate, though, it is Justin H. Min’s performance. Ben is not the most dynamic character for him to showcase his talents, but he’s a gorgeous actor with a quiet command of the screen. After his breakout in last year’s After Yang he continues to be a standout in his films, and he’s established himself as a name to watch.

Rating: 3/5

Theater Camp

Theater Camp is an absolute delight, the best version of the small-scale comedies that Sundance is known for launching. The film stars Molly Gordon (who also serves as codirector) and Ben Platt as Rebecca-Diane and Amos, the lead counselors at a drama camp that they’ve maybe invested a little too much of their lives in. As they unwind their codependency and figure out their next move, the camp faces financial peril after its beloved founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma and the camp is taken over by her YouTube Bro son Troy (Jimmy Tatro).

The film is a blast from its first moments all the way through the end, and we don’t get too many movies that are as uncomplicated a joy as this one. I want to call out the performances I loved but then I would end up naming all of them, so I’ll just say this: Ayo Edebiri is a wonder in how hilarious she can be, and how much of her character she can communicate, in mere seconds.

I’ve long been a fan of Molly Gordon’s, and after terrific acting turns in Booksmart and Shiva Baby she has proven with Theater Camp that she is a supremely talented writer and director, too (Nick Lieberman is her codirector). I am on board for any upcoming films she has, and frankly, on board to be her friend if that option is on the table. Theater Camp was picked up by Fox Searchlight out of Sundance, which means it should hopefully get a healthy theatrical run before dropping on Hulu. It’s the perfect distribution path for this sort of film, which I think will play wonderfully in theaters and then expand its audience on streaming. Theater Camp is a great time, and the sort of heartwarming movie you can recommend to anyone.

Rating: 3.5/5