Dream Scenario, 2023.
Written and Directed by Kristoffer Borgli.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Dylan Baker, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Lily Bird, Jessica Clement, Nicholas Braun, Jennifer Wigmore, Kate Berlant, Dylan Gelula, David Klein, Ben Caldwell, Agape Mngomezulu, Marnie McPhail, Star Slade, Noah Lamanna, Richard Jutras, Maev Beaty, Al Warren, Kaleb Horn, Philip van Martin, Cara Volchoff, Liz Adjei, Jessie-Ann Kohlman, Greer Cohen, Lily Gao, Krista Bridges, Noah Centineo, Josh Richards, Ramona Gilmour-Darling. Sofia Banzhaf, Nicole Leroux, Amber Midthunder, Alton Mason, Thomas Mitchell, Jim Armstrong, Marc Coppola, and Leah Stanley.
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.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Dream Scenario wouldn’t exist.
Chances are, if you talk to someone about their dreams, they have probably had one where they either reacted differently from how they wished they had, perhaps to the point of idly standing by during a stressful situation for those around them that would otherwise incite panic. In writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage’s Paul Matthews is the man invading the dreams of every soul on earth, strolling into them and basically doing nothing. Although stating the character’s name might not be necessary, considering the walking meme that Cage sometimes is, he is already more than enough to sell that premise.
The inexplicable phenomenon begins with one of his two daughters casually reciting her dream to Paul over breakfast, essentially disappointed that a dead body fell from the sky and that she started levitating off the ground, all while he stood around and kept raking the leaves. One of his associates also describes a similar dream, publishing it online alongside a picture of Paul, where it then turns out the entire world is randomly dreaming of Nicolas Cage inhabiting their sleepy subconscious, harmlessly but also weirdly doing nothing. Sometimes, he is an onlooker to a murder; other times, he is slowly walking through the frame of a building that appears to be rumbling and facing destruction from an earthquake.
Naturally, Paul is not proud to hear that he isn’t coming to his daughter’s aid, but he is simultaneously confused and moderately thrilled that this worldwide shared experience is blowing up his popularity, intending to meet with marketers to push for a book publishing deal on evolutionary biology. Outside of people’s dreams, Paul is a professor, bitter that one of his former colleagues allegedly took some of his research and ideas, finding success that he believes should be his. Meanwhile, the marketing team (consisting of Michael Cera’s Trent) is more concerned with vapid fame, such as attaching Paul to advertisements for Sprite or a publicity stunt where Barack Obama would dream about him.
The only thing Paul cares about is using this viral popularity to be able to do something he finds personally fulfilling, which, in theory, should probably be what most people do with notoriety rather than selling themselves out for further and insatiable celebrity status and greed. It’s easy to laugh at Paul for jumping on mainstream news stations right away to talk about their dreams and meet with marketers, but it is also admirable that the one thing he wants to do with it ties to something he has already dedicated most of his life to.
Nevertheless, one of the younger marketing agents, Molly (Dylan Gelula), comes onto the married Paul, nervously shy but also eager to tell him that her dreams have been sexual. Paul and his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) seem to have a functioning relationship despite small trust issues. Perhaps they are warranted, as Molly encourages Paul to try reenacting this dream in an unbelievably funny sequence (which might contain the greatest cinematic fart of all time) as he comes dangerously close to crossing the line into cheating.
In what could be karmically related or not, suddenly, everyone’s dreams involving Paul go down the Freddy Krueger route, with him murdering them. It is here where Kristoffer Borgli begins sloppily digging into the themes he wants to explore, not limited to fame but how society can go from idolizing to hating a celebrity in a split second based on horrible things they may have or have not done. From here, Paul becomes vilified and the source of his town’s collective trauma, even though the crimes are being committed in dreams.
And while there is always something to appreciate about taking a provocative stance, Dream Scenario skirts the line a little too closely between rightfully mocking America’s tendency to jump to conclusions without having any evidence to sympathizing with self-absorbed men who swear up and down they have done nothing wrong when all signs point to them being guilty. Just because Paul is the exception to the rule doesn’t make the messaging any less hazy. The film also greatly overestimates how much viewers will care about Paul’s marital woes.
In terms of capturing America’s cultural insanity in a bottle, especially the constant need to shove everyone and everything into a part of a culture war (once Paul becomes public enemy number one, he is hilariously asked if you would like to go on some alt-right talk shows), Dream Scenario is a fitting whirlwind story of the ups and downs of overnight fame. It also stands to reason to believe that many viewers want to see Nicolas Cage either act bizarre or freak out in various oddball dreams, in which case, Kristoffer Borgli has the fan base covered, delivering several loony sequences with big laughs.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
