04/07/2025

FRIDAY | JULY 4, 2025

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MOVIE REVIEW

Broken body, fractured mind

o Jonathan Majors disappears into role of tormented loner in Magazine Dreams

Ű BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

I F the entire series of events around Jonathan Majors’s physical assault crimes had not happened and upended his career, the actor would have easily secured awards season nominations and even won some for playing the more troubled Killian Maddox in Magazine Dreams . Obsessed with bodybuilding, grocery g

Sky-Hi has had a hand in launching the careers of other J-pop boy bands.

ARTISTE, producer and BMSG CEO Sky-Hi just dropped his latest single At the Last . This marks the fifth single from his forthcoming final rap album Success Is The Best Revenge – a culmination of his journey as a solo rapper and a bold statement of his evolving legacy. Produced by Ryosuke “Dr R” Sakai, with composer Daisuke Nakamura also contributing, At the Last is a powerful, emotionally-charged anthem. Set against a gritty, alternative beat, the track blends Sky-Hi’s signature technical rap with raw, melodic vocals to deliver a soul-stirring message: in a world that often mocks idealism, there is strength in believing in dreams – and in choosing to live by them. The single also serves as the official theme song for The Last Piece , the new audition project led by Sky-Hi and BMSG in partnership with TBS, following the success of Be:First and Mazzel. The project aims to discover and debut the third BMSG boy group, with the theme song setting the tone for the entire journey. The full audition episodes of The Last Piece can be viewed via the BMSG Official YouTube Channel. Renowned for his boundary-breaking artistry, Sky-Hi is one of Japan’s most versatile entertainers – a rapper, vocalist, dancer, producer and CEO of the management label BMSG. After launching hit boy groups Be:First and Mazzel, Sky-Hi continues to redefine what it means to lead from the stage and the boardroom. In 2023, he completed a nationwide arena tour as a solo artiste while continuing to mentor the next generation of Japanese pop icons. Sky-Hi drops final single

store worker Killian lives each day with the singular goal of sculpting a body fit to be featured in magazines like his bodybuilding hero Brad Vanderhorn (Mike O’Hearn). Living with his grandfather, Killian has no social or love life. He lacks basic skills to hold

The film’s great shots come from True Detective cinematographer Adam Arkapaw. – PICS FROM BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT Th Ad

start for Killian will quickly erode as the story progresses with each of his explosive episodes of st w e s w h

Majors proves himself to be a heavyweight among younger actors in Hollywood.

conversations with anyone. Killian’s only “friend” is Brad, who he regularly writes letters to in montages akin to Eminem’s Stan music video, despite never receiving a reply. On top his undiagnosed mental health afflictions, Killian’s psychological problems are made worse by the cocktail of anabolic steroids – or performance enhancing drugs – that he regularly abuses to achieve his bodybuilding dreams, which naturally takes a toll on his body, leading to an escalating series of breakdowns. Descent into madness A common term thrown around for the film is how it is “trauma porn” and for the most part, Magazine Dreams is precisely that. Writer s o

violence or just being outright weird. Majors himself does an excellent job at capturing Killian, sometimes blurring the lines between whether he is playing a character, or if his own “characteristics” are bleeding into Bynum’s creation. Standout scenes such as Killian’s first date with a co-worker that devolves into him brusquely talking about his parents’ murder-suicide, and then transitioning into a weird monologue involving bodybuilding or how he ambushes a bodybuilding judge would not have worked without Majors’s inherent intensity and flexibility to switch tones. The isolation of modern men The “trauma porn” aside, ironically, Magazine Dreams is, unintentionally or otherwise, the perfect depiction of the modern “male loneliness epidemic” put to film. Though the film was dropped by its violence or just being ou 9

0 Cast: Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page 0 Director: Elijah Bynum

distributors from a 2023 release due to Majors’s controversies, Magazine Dreams finally being released in 2025 is timely. In an era of heightened awareness on male loneliness and the dangers of it, Magazine Dreams serves as a cautionary tale for how undiagnosed and untreated mental health problems can quickly spiral out of control, especially for individuals such as Killian who have a potent mixture of underlying problems exacerbating each other. Magazine Dreams is streaming on premium video platforms. The film’s first date sequence is a masterclass in storytelling, acting and atmosphere.

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director Elijah Bynum holds no punches back when it comes to the amount of trauma he subjects viewers to through Killian’s actions. Magazine Dreams is a hard watch, as any empathy that viewers may have at the film’s

5SOS Michael Clifford teases upcoming album with new song SINGER-SONGWRITER Michael Clifford of 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) has joined forces with electronic music artiste Porter Robinson on a new single Kill Me For Always . The new track was co-produced by Clifford and Robinson alongside JT Daly, Rudey and Oscar Neidhardt. It follows his previously released singles, Cool and Give Me a Break! (featuring Waterparks) , which will appear on his solo debut album Sidequest , out on July 25.

Clifford is an Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of the multi-platinum pop-rock band 5SOS – the only Australian band in history to have its first three full-length studio albums enter the Billboard 200, with over 18 million albums sold. Having risen to fame in the early 2010s, Clifford became known for his impressive guitar skills, ever changing hair colours and his charismatic stage presence. As a key songwriter and producer for the band, he helped shape its evolving sound across multiple chart-topping albums. On working with Robinson, Clifford shared:

“Porter Robinson has been my favourite artiste for a really long time and the idea of us creating something together was just a pipe dream to me. Kill Me For Always was a song that took a lot of trial and error to get this song 100% right. As the first track off my upcoming album, I think it perfectly sets the tone of the beginning of a story.” Clifford is known primarily as the guitarist with Australian band 5SOS.

live shows are the place we feel the most alive, so being able to bring this album to the stage is something that I am beyond excited about. “I cannot wait to have all of the people who have supported my solo debut in one place, and be able to scream their lungs out with me, revelling in this one night that we have together.” Kill Me For Always is a collaboration between Clifford and electronic music maestro Robinson.

Sidequest is due to drop on July 25.

In tandem with today’s release, Clifford shared the exciting news of his one-night-only show Sidequest Live, in Los Angeles on July 31. The show will be a special event to celebrate the release of his debut solo album and will see him playing the full album in its entirety. On the show’s announcement, Clifford shared: “Anyone who is a fan of 5SOS knows that