Dream Scenario Review: Nicolas Cage Is The Man Of Your Dreams [Fantastic Fest 2023]
In Kristoffer Borgli's "Dream Scenario," Nicolas Cage becomes the man of your dreams. The A24-produced psychological thriller dives into complications of subconscious influence, cancel culture abruptness, and overnight fame as told through the science of unconscious thoughts. It's provocative as a hallucinogenic experiment about viral infamy, but not wholly clear in its storytelling as harmless interrupted slumbers turn into waking nightmares. The memeability of Cage is an attraction as always, yet as seriousness overtakes a bumbling nobody's obscure thrust into the limelight, Borgli loses a bit of storytelling control within an otherwise provocative social experiment.
Cage stars as Osler University professor Paul Matthews, an evolutionary biologist who begins appearing in people's dreams. There's no rhyme or reason — he's just there. His classroom fills with students who can't stop seeing Paul, nor can he keep up with flooding Facebook messages from people worldwide who've had a Paul dream. It's the notoriety he's always craved and yet to achieve in his professional career (Paul obsesses over his inability to get published), but the strangeness of Paul's "success" comes with unknown dangers — red flags he ignores, addicted to the spotlight.
Hints of Charlie Kaufman play well
The unpredictability of dreamscapes is as boundlessly unique as you'd expect. Cage's performance as a Sandman who passively stands there as dreamers are chased by a skinless specter or cower out of bite range of alligators is an entertaining schtick. As the dreams become more volatile, and Cage enters nightmare territory, Borgli takes advantage of Cage's louder performance signatures where toothy smiles become Boogeyman material. You're here for Dreamy Cage, and that mysterious playfulness has a tingle of "Everything Everywhere All At Once," where there's no telling what might pop on the screen next.
But "Dream Scenario" is hardly a wacky story about a man who's achieved the ultimate level of exposure. Paul becomes a God-tier influencer — an insecure, bearded-and-balding man who is suddenly the hottest commodity for advertising gurus like Michael Cera's brand-peddling Trent. Borgli tells the woeful tale of internet celebrity lifecycles on fast-forward, since Paul cannot control how he appears to dreamers. Paul holds on for dear life throughout his meteoric rise in the public interest to the responses when peoples' otherwise curious dreams turn frightful, played by Cage with dramatic gravitas that channels his Charlie Kaufman days. The delineation between Dream Paul and Real Paul lets Cage explore the Cagiest of other-dimensional wildness in contrast to a far more tragic, grounded take on cancel culture through the eyes of the cancellable.
You can't fault the film's ambitions
That, unfortunately, is where Borgli struggles to sustain storytelling fluidity. "Dream Scenario" is a high-level warning against the dangers of craving Kardashian spotlights as Paul starts to let his picturesque home life — especially his relationship with the scene-stealing Julianne Nicholson as patient wife Janet — begin to fracture. The darker Borgli pushes, the more commentary focuses on Paul's inability to control the narrative people create about him (in their dreams), whether unfair judgment or correct assessment. The tonal swing into darker territories robs "Dream Scenario" of its charm, and Borgli's screenplay isn't ironclad enough to survive its plunge into the depressive realities that await the downslide after fifteen minutes of fame expire. You can't fault the film's ambitions, and direct Freddy Krueger photo shoots for Rue Morgue magazine are worth their chuckles, yet there's a feeling of incompleteness brought upon by the third act's corrosive transformation.
That's the story Borgli wants to tell, and he does so confidently. Borgli steers the entirety of "Dream Scenario" like a dream itself, hands off the wheels for better and worse. It's an ode to the Kaufmans and Michel Gondrys of cinema, bursting with exquisite imagination throughout. It's as warmly sentimental about the intimacy that matters in life as it is searingly satirical about how we chastise individuals for what they perceive, silencing their voice and deciding their fates like Greecian arenas screaming yay or nay. Cage's dynamic performance as a man who wants to be heard feels tragically two steps behind online culture's poisonous grasp, and he plays the part well — there's just an incompleteness as the film wraps, and we're left with murkiness around all those mentions of cancel culture and the event that turns Paul's dream cameos from unassumingly comical to despicable.
"Dream Scenario" is a sprawling dissection of subconscious desires and how marketable popularity spells doom for its subjects, showcasing Borgli's flexible originality without sacrificing emotional investment. It's a rare modern Cage movie that understands there's more to his talents than gifable outbursts, because his tearful pleas for compassion and adoringly sweet reassurances as a head-over-heels husband showcase the Cage we deserve. In no stretch is "Dream Scenario" a failure, merely an ambitious social commentary that somewhat loses its way amongst grandiose ideas. There are flickers of something special here not to be ignored — Borgli has a bright future, primed to give us the next "Adaptation." or "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" if "Dream Scenario" is any indication.
/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10