Dream Scenario

 

★★★

Fame is fleeting, as they say. But when the fame is in season, what can you control with your own fame? Or do you have any control, for that matter? All of these are questions with potentially unknowable answers.

Dream Scenario tries to answer these questions, & does so with intermittent success. The film follows Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a mild-mannered college professor. Loved by his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) & two daughters, Sophie (Lily Bird) & Hannah (Jessica Clement) at home, but passed aside by colleagues & acquaintances like Richard (Dylan Baker) for dinner parties & such, Paul never manages to stick out.

That is, until one night, after Paul & Janet leave a play, where Paul is told by an old flame that he has appeared in her dreams. Then Richard calls & tells him that he has appeared in the dreams of a colleague who has never met him. Then more & more people start recognizing him in their dreams, from his students to others who have never interacted with him in real life. The dreams vary, but there is one constant: Paul is in them doing absolutely nothing.

With this, Paul becomes an overnight sensation. Suddenly, everyone wants to be around him, including marketing firms like one led by Trent (Michael Cera), who wants to get Paul with the Obamas & on cans of Sprite. Paul is skeptical of the fame at first, but eventually lets it get the better of him. But as the dreams start to take an active turn for the worse, Paul tries to figure out just how much, if any, of his fame is in his hands.

The cast is great. Nicolas Cage, as always, is tuned in. Cage is always a standout, no matter what the quality of the film, but when he's got something good going, it's a sight to see. The supporting cast, especially Julianne Nicholson & Michael Cera do some great work, but it's Cage's show through & through.

Kristoffer Borgli's direction is very good. Borgli sometimes bites off more than he can chew by handling all the themes, but he manages to have a original vision throughout.

His screenplay is solid, but not as strong as his direction. By the third act, the film takes a turn into the idea of cancel culture, & as a result, some of the satire falls flat. However, the characters are, for the most part, fully realized, & the dialogue is often very funny.

And his editing is terrific. Borgli uses a number of jump cuts to excellent effect, & his use of elliptical editing to drive the story forward is a fresh style in a world of stale editing that just exists.

While some of the themes, like that of cancel culture, don't quite hit, others about the sudden onset of fame, ultimately do. Dream Scenario owes a lot to the films of Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman, especially Being John Malkovich & Adaptation (also starring Nicolas Cage). But although the film is ultimately recommended, I wanted the real thing much more.

Dream Scenario is in theaters now. Its runtime is 102 minutes, & it is rated R for language, violence, & some sexual content.