内容摘要：The government directives and ensuing court battles have left many immigrants unsure of what to do.

The government directives and ensuing court battles have left many immigrants unsure of what to do.

. A month later, “Magazine Dreams” was without distribution. Majors has, throughout it all, maintained his innocence.The film was eventually picked up by

, the same distributor who jumped in to release the young Donald Trump movie “The Apprentice” after the rest of the entertainment business shied away from it. “The Apprentice” went on to getBut there’s a different kind of stigma around “Magazine Dreams,” which is why this review has also been a bit eclipsed by what’s happened in Majors’ life. It’s a film about a man teetering on the edge of violence, about the relentless pursuit of greatness — and it is deeply uncomfortable watching his descent.His simplistic devotion to one wild goal may be his undoing in a world that just doesn’t care about him. This is not the movie that any public relations professional would choose as a “comeback role.” Yet it’s impossible to deny the monumental ferocity of Majors’ performance, from his full transformation to his unsettling ability to show the pain behind (most of) the psychotic actions.

Killian’s life is nothing glamorous: He works in a grocery store and at home cares for his aging grandfather. But he has an intense, maniacal need to be seen and to be remembered. And the only way he’s figured out how to achieve that is through physical perfection — or at least his very narrow idea. Success is a magazine cover, which he naively conflates with immortality.When co-worker Jessie (Haley Bennett, who does a lot with a small, somewhat thankless role) agrees to go out on a date with him, he is genuinely shocked that she isn’t familiar with his bodybuilding idol, saying something to the effect of “you need to get out more.”

Writer-director Elijah Bynum effectively imbues his film with stylized intensity. You feel uneasy and captivated from the start, though you try to give Killian the benefit of the doubt — to look for his goodness, to root for his success, if only for the hope that it might keep him docile for a little longer. Though we’re told early that he’s had violent episodes, through his court-ordered therapist, the glass isn’t fully shattered until Jessie starts to process that Killian is someone she needs to get away from, fast. This is notably after he orders perhaps $500 worth of protein on the date, just for himself. Sadly, we don’t get to see the bill.

While “Magazine Dreams” is an interesting character study, one many actors would love to play for all its dramatic opportunities, it also seems crafted entirely to provoke and shock — especially in the almost unbearably bleak final hour. After two viewings, one of which I had to take a break from during one of his violent outbursts, I’m not actually sure what it’s trying to say about men, about trauma, about ‘roid rage. Killian seems less like an authentic person and more a simplistic stand-in for the forgotten person, the quiet weirdo who ends up a mass killer.The flag of South Korea is displayed at the Overseas Korean Adoptees Gathering in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The flag of South Korea is displayed at the Overseas Korean Adoptees Gathering in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Korean adoptees have organized, and now they help those coming along behind them. Non-profit groups conduct DNA testing. Sympathetic residents, police officers and city workers of the towns where they once lived often try to assist them. Sometimes adoption agencies are able to track down birth families.

Nearly four decades after her adoption to the U.S., Nicole Motta in May sat across the table from a 70-year-old man her adoption agency had identified as her birth father. She typed “thanks for meeting me today” into a translation program on her phone to show him. A social worker placed hair samples into plastic bags for DNA testing.But the moment they hugged, Motta, adopted to the United States in 1985, didn’t need the results — she knew she’d come from this man.