Elijah Bynum’s “Magazine Dreams” opens on images of a man in on a runaway as his barely-clothed body is embraced by light. It’s a warm yet lonely image, and that contradiction invests it ...

Magazine Dreams is an eye-catching drama that comes within inches of genuine insight. As a tale of male body image, it’s uniquely poised to dig into a subject few other American films have touched.

Instead, he specifically tells them that he will split their skull apart and drink their brains like soup—a promise he makes twice over the run of Magazine Dreams, a new movie by the writer ...