2023 Is The Year Of Jonathan Majors, But Most People Haven't Seen His Best Performance Yet

Note: This post was published several hours before the news broke that Jonathan Majors had been arrested on charges of assault, strangulation, and harassment. Original article follows.

Jonathan Majors is having a great year on screen. The actor began his film and TV career just five years ago, but this month alone, he's starred in two number-one movies at the box office. After making a name for himself as a poetic supporting character in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," taking on the main role in HBO's "Lovecraft Country," and appearing in films like "Da 5 Bloods" and "Devotion," Majors added some major franchises to his repertoire. He can currently be spotted going head to head with Michael B. Jordan in "Creed III," as well as making his big-screen Marvel debut as Kang the Conquerer in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."

Both of Majors' 2023 performances to date have earned him praise from critics and fans, but by the time the next award cycle runs around, the actor's name could be on the tip of everyone's tongue again thanks to a totally different role he'll take on this year: that of deeply unstable amateur bodybuilder Killian Maddox in "Magazine Dreams."

"Magazine Dreams" debuted at Sundance this year, where Majors' performance again received widespread acclaim — although some critics dinged the film for its runtime and plotting. /Film's Chris Evangelista liked the movie, writing in his review that Majors "commands the screen with his scary, funny, towering performance." He's right, but words on the page don't do justice to the experience of actually watching "Magazine Dreams." Elijah Bynum's brutal and relentless thriller puts audiences through the ringer with a story that shares several parallels to Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader's "Taxi Driver." It's as tough to watch "Magazine Dreams" as it is to look away from it; by the time the film reached its climax, I was counting down the remaining minutes and watching through my fingers.

Bynum's ambitious movie succeeds thanks to a combination of tightly wound elements, from its direction and editing to its score, but Majors ties the excruciating psychological slow burn together with a panic attack-inducing performance. Killian is unwell in more ways than one. He's a ferocious ball of trauma, 'roid rage, toxic masculinity, mental illness, and a profound inability to socially connect in the ways he wants to. It's that last part that makes the movie — and Majors' performance — so memorable. The film's mesmerizing pacing pushes viewers to the brink of our ability to feel empathy, showing us Killian at his most frightening and inexcusable before snapping back, like a rubber band, into scenes that make us wish we could give him a hug.

"Magazine Dreams" seems like a movie that's due to get awards-season attention thanks to both its recently announced December release date and its central performance, in which Majors utilizes not just his heart and soul but also his body. Physical transformation movies always earn Academy attention, and with Majors bulking up via an extensive diet and training regimen for his bodybuilder role that made him all rippling muscle (while taking a hard psychological toll), he certainly fits those parameters. But Majors' performance goes way beyond shallow physical change; he embodies Killian Maddox with fury, unpredictability, and a complex sense of pain. The punishing movie will certainly leave movie-goers reeling, but no matter your response to "Magazine Dreams," it's clear that Majors makes Killian into a singular, unforgettable character.

This is the year of Jonathan Majors, and it's thrilling to know that it's just getting started. Searchlight's "Magazine Dreams" will hit theaters on December 8, 2023.