Dream Scenario
The peculiar premise of ‘Dream Scenario’ is nothing if not refreshingly odd. In this flick, Nicolas Cage stars as Paul Matthews, an evolutionary biology professor who starts appearing in the dreams of his students, daughters and random strangers. He does nothing in these recurring nocturnal hallucinations of anxiety or terror occasionally someone floats into the air or the world crumbles mostly just walking through the background in his sweater and glasses with a dumb nice-guy grin on his face. Then he becomes a phenomenon, then everyone else’s dreams starring Paul turn violent and he becomes a pariah.
Movies like this won’t get made for another couple years, or maybe ever again by certain studios. But that’s where writer/director Kristoffer Borgli comes in, supported by A24 distribution and producers including Cage himself and Ari Aster. Borgli is a Norwegian satirist long interested in crude commercialism and absurd premises (earlier this year saw the stateside release of “Sick of Myself,” about a woman who does something unspeakable and medically dangerous to her face to become famous). This one’s the inverse. It makes fame happen, it won’t let you control your image until after it has died away from you like a magic trick that wasn’t supposed to happen but still did anyway. Neither film spends much time playing out these scenarios on social media, but they don’t need to; groupthink is the bubble.
Cage gives excellent weirdo when he’s not trying to be one (his directorial superpower) but stuck being seen as such in an uncanny series of events. Such an iconic normie requires a star turn at its center, and he hasn’t been this good since playing two Kaufman brothers opposite each other for Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation.” His career choices have grown meta over recent years only once they started fitting around his passions instead of vice versa. The more enthused he is about what makes someone so bizarre, the more spirited his roles. Here it’s all about the hunching and stuttering and nasal presence of Paul, Cage brings an essential innocence to this part that first finds him hilarious in how blank he is so good at telling unfunny jokes! and later clueless as a patsy for the culture wars. He acts as though this were simply a biopic about a professor who wants to one day be known for having written a book about ants.
Borgli’s script, inspired by memes, rushing to fame and celebrity among other things, is funny when pitching the initial problem. There are big laughs when flattered Paul asks someone if they’ve been dreaming about him. But it becomes unsatisfyingly uninterested in why any of this might be happening or what happens next, where it could have gone worldwide or just stayed inside one soul who never dreamed before. It’s telling that there are some punchy awkward moments (with a punchline), but not one great scene. Sincere work from Cage can only do so much while Paul remains unaware of how to turn around his fall from grace.
When he makes a crying video begging for empathy, as influencers are known to do, it just makes everything much worse, but the story is not better.
“Dream Scenario” gets many cringing laughs, and yet its humor easy shots at vapid capitalist pawn influencers, cancel culture, Tucker Carlson, and other culture wars Mad Libs is mostly about the cheap comic thrill of getting the reference. Like with Borgli’s first feature “Drib,” about a powerful energy drink company called “Drib,” his way of satire is much less so about what a reference means than what it’s standing in for. The awkwardness in “Dream Scenario” is stronger and gets more laughs than the story containing it. In that process are left compelling characters played by the likes of Michael Cera and Dylan Gelula as sketches. Julianne Nicholson as Paul’s wife Janet is the biggest loss from this slightness, she’s maybe the last person to take Paul seriously because she knows him beyond any fantasy or nightmare he can bring.
The sleepy visions of “Dream Scenario” play out like disquieting slapstick, adding to Borgli’s unsettling filmmaking. With a human touch from cinematographer Benjamin Loeb’s many profile shots at a low angle (and a nice and tangible film stock), editing creates an odd tone that’s more horrified than horror. Multiple jarring cuts can disrupt an otherwise calm moment, and many scenes start with elements of danger the uncertainty whether we’re in a dream or not. Borgli may be too lost in dreams’ haziness to make great points, but he always keeps us on our toes.
“Dream Scenario” is a riff on the real life weird case of “This Man” a sketch that has inspired a website called “Ever Dream This Man?” Thousands of people around the world claim to have dreamed this face featured on their site and can appear ordinary enough that you could have seen him in your dreams the longer you stare at him. Like a movie star. Borgli takes the concept of an eponymous figure a possible proof of collective unconsciousness, dream surfing, or even proof of God and places it on the screen presence of Cage, a real phenomenon we have all memed about at one point or another.
In the end “Dream Scenario” is what it criticizes but with no great statement or great pivotal scene just intriguing oddball amusement. The movie isn’t just about memes, it is a meme. Which is part of the point but not the most memorable one “Dream Scenario” could make.
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