TIFF Review: Magazine Is a Vibrant, Funny Debut Set In the NYC Literary World

“We’re all adults here,” a character says with great sincerity in Alexandra Pechman’s debut feature, Magazine. However, as this 2011 period piece testifies, nothing could be further from the truth. “Here” is the office of Platen, a top-flight New York literary magazine which, like a great many publications of that era and others, is reliant on the energy, drive, stamina, and desire-to-please of interns. These interns are in their early 20s and, in the case of Magazine protagonist Nora Miller, wide-eyed and star-struck.

It is not surprising to read that Pechman was herself an intern at a New York literary mag, so exact are many of the details onscreen. Pechman knows what it feels like to find a spelling error others missed, or to receive real praise from an editor—albeit one only four or five years older than you. I would guess that Pechman also saw examples of how interns are taken advantage of and unappreciated. She wrote what she knew, and the result is a fresh, vibrant, and absolutely wonderful film. 

This is not altogether new ground for a coming-of-age film; at times Magazine brings to mind films like Almost Famous in the way it skillfully develops a main character who is equally naive and endearing. And Pechman deserves credit for writing a witty, even delightful screenplay that finds some hard truths in a scene that from afar appeared to be the height of sophistication. The reality, in Magazine, is a cocktail of personal and professional jealousy. For the interns of Platen, however, it is also a place for unexpectedly deep friendship. 

Such is the case for Nora Miller, beautifully played by Lily McInerny. She was the star of two very different but brilliant films: 2022’s criminally underseen Palm Trees and Power Lines and 2024’s Bonjour Tristesse. McInerny earned justifiable raves for both, and she is even more memorable in Magazine. Plucked from sunny Arizona for an internship in New York, Nora yearns to be a poet, but would certainly take a job at Platen. One of the film’s most winning jokes is the oft-uttered statement that jobs never open up at Platen, but one can dream. 

The office is staffed by one of the handsomest young casts in recent cinema. That is no exaggeration; consider that the big boss, Mickey, is played by Jake Lacy while the editing staff also includes characters played by Delaney Rowe and Joshuah Melnick; the latter is Thomas, a young editor who has a bit too much familiarity with the interns. Joining Nora as interns are plucky Tabitha (the fantastic Lukita Maxwell), somber Leonard (Daniel Zolghadri), and go-getter Greer (Ruby Cruz). All four come to some important conclusions about their lives by summer’s end.

The script is not without its missteps. Thomas takes a turn that feels overly, well, evil (an accusation uttered by Nora), and some characters, like Iris Apatow’s Daphne, deserved more screen time. The film is not very concerned about Nora the poet; the exact nature of her writing and POV are not well-established. But these are minor quibbles. McInerny is in almost every shot, and her radiance is undeniable; the same can be said for Maxwell.

Magazine is hugely successful in making audience members feel nostalgia for a period that, despite only being 15ish years prior, seems remarkably optimistic by comparison. Part of this involves the look of the film; it is gloriously bright. Those who decry color grading on X owe it to themselves to catch Magazine on the largest screen possible. The work of costume designer Michelle J. Li is especially stunning; it is unclear how Nora has amassed such a lovely wardrobe as an unpaid intern, but let’s not worry about that. When the film looks and sounds (the soundtrack is bursting with greats by the Strokes and New Order) this smashing, such questions can be crumpled up and chucked in the waste bin.

Pechman has created a film that pulls off the nearly impossible achievement of being as adorable as its cast. She has also brought onscreen the dying world of magazine publishing, and anyone who has ever worked at or contributed to a print publication is likely to smile several times. The nature of magazine publishing—as Mickey puts it, the development, creation, and printing of such publications capture a literal moment in time—is a fine metaphor for twentysomething life. It is a treat to see such a light, funny, winning film centered on a young woman, especially one with a dazzling young star in the lead. If Platen was a real literary magazine, it may have moved online by now. But the Nora Millers (and Alexandra Pechmans) of the world are too smart and driven not to find their way—if they survive the internships. 

Magazine premiered at TIFF 2026.