Dream Scenario (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.

My Take – Former international superstar Nicolas Cage continues his massive return to fame, following his acclaimed turns in Mandy (2018), Color Out of Space (2019), Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), Butcher’s Crossing (2022), Renfield (2023), and Sympathy for the Devil (2023), with this A24 feature, that also credits Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) as a producer.

Often considered a meme, the most unique factor of Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s third feature, following DRIB (2017) and Sick of Myself (2022), is that it casts the often bombastic actor as a toned down half bald regular professor who’s abruptly flung into the international spotlight when he starts randomly appearing in other people’s dreams.

Driven by a sharp screenplay and subtly surreal film making, this one is a strange, cerebral and mesmerizing film that provides laughter, tension and a few solid scares wrapped up in a complex and creative package.

Providing an often hilarious look at unexpected fame and how it’s impossible to control how others interpret it. A be careful what you wish for story that’s a lot stronger when primarily focusing on how fame affects a person than when it delves into cancel culture.

Yes, it falls short of being a classic, particularly due to its unfocused final act, yet it easily earns enough good will for its creativity and strong execution. Mainly as it has a lot to say about overnight fame and its consequences in the social-media era. Blessed with menace and sadness in equal measure, it’s a fun film on the surface, very much worth it for Cage‘s well-done work.

The story follows Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a mild-mannered and shy run of the mill university biology professor living a content life with his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and two teenage daughters, Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clement). His students take no real notice of him. His former colleagues publish papers in top journals whilst he hasn’t even started his book yet. But he’s happy enough, if not fulfilled.

His life changes when Paul’s journalist ex-girlfriend spots him and tells him that he has been appearing in her dreams, and seeks his permission to write about these occurrences, to which Paul agrees.

Unexpectedly, the article, linked to Paul’s Facebook page, becomes a phenomenon as he discovers that millions of people around the world have been dreaming about him, turning him into a global celebrity. Even though in this dreams, the dreamer tends to be in a difficult position, and Paul is just a bystander, doing absolutely nothing.

Believing that his new found success is the best thing that ever happened to him, Paul even meets a PR firm (Michael Cera and Kate Berlant), hoping it could help his to-be-written book on insect psychology (ant-elligence, as he’s coined it) get off the ground, and attempts to reroute his notability toward unrelated success.

But when Paul’s dream cameos suddenly become starring roles in terrifying nightmares, he and his family become pariahs, and are forced to cope or find a way out of this unprecedented situation.

And so starts a ride to uncharted territory, speaking a lot about the current state of affairs around us. Cancel culture, influencers, AI, mind implanting. Everything gets a nod in this superbly structured film that I could relate with so much.

What starts off as weird story, soon becomes disturbing and the moves into the good and evil of social media, corporations, the need to be recognized, self-worth, mental health, and the abuse of trust and power. A mix of comedy and horror, packed into a dreamlike state, the film’s rhythms take a bit to get used to as the more surreal and satirical edges come to the fore.

The first half features some excellent screenwriting from writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, which manages to be cutting and satirical while still replicating the verbal patterns of real life.

Being produced by Ari Aster, there’s a touch of his influence particularly in the second half. With the added horror element just enough life of its own to establish director Borgli as a promising talent. The tension builds steadily and becomes quite unsettling, with some of the nightmare sequences proving to be effectively jarring.

His direction really nails the dream sequences in particular. They’re very surreal, brief and when they start to turn into nightmares they really don’t hold back on the violence.

He offers an intelligent exploration of the ways we connect in the social media age, the desire for our few seconds of fame, and the danger that comes with putting ourselves out there to a point where we can’t escape ourselves. He has some interesting things to say about the way we enthusiastically build up public figures to mythical proportions only to tear them down with equal gusto.

It’s rather unfortunate that the script bites off one interesting idea too many in the final section, adding a more science fiction–oriented plot element that suddenly requires more explanation than the filmmaker is able to give without completely sidetracking the film.

The result wasn’t bad, exactly, but seemed to belong in a different film. I think it would’ve been better if the film had had the courage of its convictions and followed the Professor to his logical fate.

Performances wise, Nicolas Cage plays the pitiful nature of Paul beautifully and brings none of the Cage rage he’s synonymous with. He’s always a bit broad in his performances, but here director Borgli harnesses his energy and spins Paul Matthews into a complex character we can understand and feel things about. Indeed, this one is a reminder that he’s still at the top of his game.

Julianne Nicholson is quite effective as the unsettled wife, while in supporting roles, Michael Cera, Kate Berlant, Dylan Gelula, Tim Meadows, Dylan Baker, Lily Bird and Jessica Clement are effective. Nicholas Braun, Noah Centineo and Amber Midthunder too turn up in hilarious cameos. On the whole, ‘Dream Scenario’ is a suitably intriguing and bizarre dark comedy that is both terrifying and hilarious at the same time.