The success of Heated Rivalry (2025) was very notable and brought a lot of attention to closeted gay men in professional sports. Heated Rivalry was specifically about professional hockey. There hasn't been a television series or motion picture that was about a gay man playing in the NHL or some equivalent. There was a series called Hit the Floor (2013) that featured a gay man in the NBA or its equivalent. There hasn't been a feature film about homosexuality in the NBA though. Same could be said about the NFL or MLB. Gay men have existed in those sports, closeted gay men, but those stories have yet to hit the silver screen or cinemas. Really, the only films about gay men as professional athletes have been limited to ones about Olympic sports, such as Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (1997). If there is a film about homosexuality in professional sports, typically it's about lesbians or people who identify as female, such as Personal Best (1982), Battle of the Sexes (2017), Nyad (2023), and Christy (2025).
Queer men in sports have seen more traction overseas in various countries. A number of those films like The Pass (2018) or In From the Side (2023) are less about the sport and more about the closeted relationship where the sport is more in the background. All that being said, this film, directed by Sam McConnell, and written by Brock Yurich, is about the sport of bodybuilding. Bodybuilders have always been used in Hollywood, action films or thrillers because of their imposing size. Not too many flicks have been about athletes competing in the sport and showing what's involved or what it takes to be in that world. There's the famous documentary Pumping Iron (1977) about Arnold Schwarzenegger competing in the 1975 Mr. Olympia. There was another documentary called Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (2008), which was about steroid abuse within the sport. Films like Pain & Gain (2013) and even Love Lies Bleeding (2024) involve bodybuilders and touch upon the sport, but those films are more about the criminality in which the characters engage. The only film that's more about a man competing in the sport of bodybuilding is Magazine Dreams (2025). Because that film starred Jonathan Majors, an actor who had legal troubles, it was mostly overlooked, but it was one of my favorite films that year. McConnell's film is even better.
Brock Yurich (Fit for Murder and The Boxer and the Butterfly) stars as Eddie Owens, an amateur bodybuilder living in Dover, Ohio, which is about an hour south of Akron and ninety minutes south of Cleveland. He basically lives in a more rural area. Ohio is in general a red state, but Eddie lives in an even more conservative region than a city like Cleveland, which currently in real-life has a Democratic mayor. Eddie lives in a more religious area and community. He himself is a regular church-going guy. He's in the sanctuary every Sunday, if not more so. He wears a cross around his neck, signifying his faith, and even though it's not hammered, he clearly is a Christian and his religion is important to him, which underlines that a gay person and a religious person can be one and the same.
However, he's not above doing things that would be considered unholy or even look past those who do. Unlike a lot of other sports, a lot of bodybuilders use some kind of drugs in order to increase muscle mass faster. Beyond supplements and extra proteins, there is the use of steroids or other substances like insulin for example. Those can be expensive or cost extra money. It's clear that Eddie doesn't have extra money and is rather poor. His main job is at a restaurant, some barbecue joint, which clearly doesn't afford him enough to live on his own. In fact, he still lives with his single mother. His father has been out of the picture for a while, and he has no other siblings or other family members. He and his mom struggle, so Eddie engages in so-called unholy things in order to earn extra money to pay the bills and also support his sports career.
Tammy Blanchard (American Sports Story and Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) co-stars as Joanne, the mother to Eddie. Like a lot of parents, she's also her son's manager. She's actively involved in his sports career. She works as a cosmetics salesperson. She sells makeup. She could be considered a kind of modern-day "Avon Lady." Instead of going door-to-door, she hosts sales events in her home with women from her neighborhood or elsewhere. She is perhaps not able to make a whole lot of money herself. Her focus on helping her son might cut into money she could be making. Because of her cosmetics experience, how she helps her son is with cosmetic type stuff. Bodybuilders don't compete on a field or in a gymnasium, they compete on a stage like an actor or dancer would. As such, bodybuilders need makeup as actors do. Applying the makeup for his events is a tradition that Joanne does proudly for her son, if not obsessively so.
Joanne also considers herself his coach. She certainly considers herself his biggest cheerleader. During his events, she is very vocal and loud, much to her son's embarrassment. He's not really embarrassed, but when others start to point out that her boisterous cheerleading isn't helping him with the judges, then Eddie starts to rethink her involvement. Unlike other sports, the judges' subjective opinion determines who wins the competitions. The only thing that athletes can do is learn how to pose in order to best show off all the muscles they've developed. Joanne tries to help Eddie on his poses, but she doesn't really know the proper techniques. The reason she helps at all is because Eddie's father was also a bodybuilder, and even though he's not in the picture anymore, she still feels as though she's seen and learned enough to coach Eddie through his competitions.
Mike Edward (The Wrecking Crew and M3gan 2.0) also co-stars as Mike Reed, a coach at Rikers Gym, a weightlifting spot that's known for training bodybuilders or those looking to develop muscle. He's an older guy, not quite old enough to be Eddie's father, but Mike is probably close enough in that age range. In fact, when Eddie asks Mike to be his new bodybuilding coach, Mike also becomes somewhat of a father figure. In a lot of ways, this is a traditional sports narrative, much like Rocky (1976). If Yurich's character is comparable to Sylvester Stallone's, then Mike Edward's character would be comparable to that of Burgess Meredith. Mike Reed would be the equivalent of Mickey. Except, Eddie and Mike's relationship takes a turn that never would have occurred between Rocky and his coach. In the 1976 Oscar-winner, Rocky had a love interest who was separate from Mickey. Here, Eddie's love interest and coach might in fact be one and the same.
There are some incidents that might raise a question about Eddie's sexuality. However, he does admit to having a girlfriend. We even see her. Her name is Abby, played by Paloma Garcia-Lee (West Side Story and Fosse/Verdon). She grew up with Eddie and they dated during high school. After graduation, she left to New York City to pursue a dance career. She specialized in ballet. Due to family issues, she had to return to Ohio and to her hometown. She opens a dance school and teaches ballet to young people, particularly to young women. When she seizes an opportunity to give Eddie some ballet lessons, it provides a chance for the two of them to rekindle their childhood romance. Yurich's film The Boxer and the Butterfly was about a super-masculine athlete who embraces a more feminine form of physical expression. Yurich clearly is incorporating that same theme here.
Despite it being a predominantly male sport, bodybuilding does open the door to more feminine aspects. As mentioned before, it's performed on a stage. It's about preening and posing, as if in a beauty pageant, a competition that's predominantly female. As such, there's a lot of homo-eroticism here, as it's mostly just men admiring other men, as well as appreciating the beauty of their bodies. McConnell provides a lot of beefcake shots and a lot of close-ups of those muscles, emphasizing sensuality of the male physique. This aspect certainly wasn't lost in Magazine Dreams, which even went as far as depicting the logical conclusion of such homo-eroticism. That film was centered on a man with mental health issues, culminating his hero worship. Here, Eddie has seemed to fall in love genuinely, making a real connection. Yet, homophobia obviously plays an important part of this story too.
Matthew Morrison, a Tony Award nominee who most might recognize as an Emmy nominee from Glee (2009), rounds out the cast as Pastor Gregg, the head of the church where Eddie and Joanne are both members. He's not in the dark about Eddie's sexuality. He's clearly one of those love-the-sinner, hate-the-sin kind of pastors. He's not necessarily a fire-and-brimstone kind of guy. He's willing to accept Eddie no matter if he's hooking up with a man or a woman, whether he's gay or not. Pastor Gregg seems to be truly caring and concerned, but even he has his limits. He's not fully aware of the unholy things that Eddie is secretly doing like on-camera, sex work. Yes, Eddie's a cam boy, but this film intimates that as a bodybuilder, Eddie's job is to display his nearly-nude form. As an amateur, he doesn't get paid for it, so why not do it in a way where he gets some bucks?
However, that homophobia does eventually affect Eddie and Mike's relationship. The circumstances aren't exactly the same, but it becomes Rocky meets Brokeback Mountain (2005). Instead of a rendezvous in a pup tent some place, it's two guys becoming sexual while pumping iron.
Not Rated but contains full-frontal male nudity, strong sexuality, drug use, and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.
Screened at NewFest38 on October 21.
Playing at the Rehoboth Beach International Film Festival (RBIFF) on November 8.
Dark Star Pictures distributing in 2027.
