There is likely no actor more attuned, both intentionally and unintentionally, to the wider cultural zeitgeist than Nicolas Cage – which is why it’s hilarious to see one of Hollywood’s most distinctive thespians playing a man who’s terminally unnoticeable. That is, of course, until he suddenly isn’t. Perhaps it’s the air of omnipresent scrutiny surrounding Cage’s own career since the beginning of the millennium that attracted him to Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s third feature, Dream Scenario. Once lauded for acclaimed roles in films like Leaving Las Vegas, for which he won an Oscar, and Bringing out the Dead, Cage faced significant financial debt in the early 2000s that forced him to take whatever roles were offered to him. He became a meme. Loved and hated in equal measure, his frequently over-the-top contributions (“Oh no, not the bees!”) to otherwise bargain bin entertainment became fodder for endless YouTube “freakout” compilations. Only recently, the actor’s acclaimed performance in 2021’s Pig has prompted a reappraisal that has seen him reclaim his image as a serious performer. “It wasn’t why I got into movies,” Cage admitted recently in an interview, and Dream Scenario is in many ways a film about that experience, of having your identity stolen from you and shifted into something increasingly beyond your control.
Cage plays Paul Matthews, a hapless and nondescript evolutionary biology teacher, whose life and marriage to Janet (Julianne Nicholson, in her second ‘Janet’ role this year), are suddenly turned upside down when he starts to randomly appear in other people’s dreams. At first, these appearances are comically unextraordinary. Friends, students and former lovers describe their dramatic visions of events, such as earthquakes or car crashes, where an anonymous Paul will suddenly appear and do absolutely nothing. As viewers, we watch these dreams unfold in strange, hallucinatory vignettes, which director Borgli captures in whimsical fragments. Enjoying significant attention for the first time in his life, Paul clumsily navigates his newfound stardom with a peculiar sense of entitlement. Trent (Michael Cera), the obnoxious CEO of a millennial PR start-up called Thoughts (stylized thoughts?), courts him for brand endorsement deals, while Janet begins to experience her own benefits from their newfound lack of anonymity. That is, until Paul’s dreamtime appearances begin to take a darker turn, and the tide of public opinion swings wildly against him in increasingly uncontrollable ways.
There’s a lot going on in Borgli’s film, perhaps too much. On one hand, Dream Scenario is an apt exploration of the pitfalls of celebrity culture, poking absurd fun at the ways in which people form parasocial relationships with those in the spotlight and, by extension, attempt to ‘cancel’ them when those interactions turn sour. Paul’s rapid descent from unlikely hero to pitiful villain, tied to a public perception that’s utterly out of his control, is an oddly cogent depiction of how it feels to have your image appropriated and distorted by an obsessive public. Conversely, it also illustrates just how easily a person will trade away ownership of their identity for a chance at any sort of recognition, even if that acknowledgement comes in the form of essentially being a big joke. Juggling these themes like a mad circus act, Borgli’s script sporadically gets caught in the weeds of its own inventiveness, taking some swings in its third act that don’t quite connect. Luckily, these flaws are not nearly enough to overcome the film’s frequent highlights, from Cage’s memorably committed performance to the plethora of striking sequences that make up its bizarre but compelling narrative.
Dream Scenario was executive produced by Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), and the auteur’s pitch-black sensibilities are all over the project, though it maintains an assured compassion that’s thankfully distinct from the mean-spirited nature of much of Aster’s work. Paul is hardly a likable protagonist, though. Even before he starts appearing in people’s dreams, the character is self-pitying and vain, obsessed with the notion that he’s entitled to recognition in academia he hasn’t worked to achieve. Cage plays the role with an awkward mixture of arrogance and ineptitude similar to his performance in Spike Jonze’s 2002 film, Adaptation. In fact, this may be the most Charlie Kaufman-esque film that Kaufman never wrote, complete with hilariously uncomfortable, borderline inappropriate sexual encounters and a deceptively meaningful depiction of middle-aged existential crises. As inherently ludicrous as the material can be, Cage is quite reserved here. His carefully modulated tics and glances lend real depth to the character beyond his oddball trappings, and it’s hard not to feel for Paul as his circumstances begin to turn morbid. There’s also a strong emotional center in the relationship between him and Janet, lending the film’s final moments a pathetic but heartwarming grace note.
Whether or not Dream Scenario fully sticks the landing, it certainly has fun in the attempt. The film may have its origins in certain aspects of internet culture, but like Cage, it’s more than just a meme. Mining scattershot but fitting observations from an inarguably inspired premise, Borgli’s latest is the type of project that could only work with the right confluence of creative factors. Luckily, it’s mostly worked out. The presence of Cage is not only entertaining but helps deepen the film’s subtext from a commentary on celebrity and cancel culture to something more meaningful, utilizing its star’s unpredictable career path as a way to reclaim his image both intentionally and creatively. We can’t control how others see us in their dreams, but we can try control how we conduct ourselves. Look past the more superficial commentary of the third act, and the world Dream Scenario depicts isn’t all that dissimilar from our own. Whether through targeted advertising, social media, billboards or otherwise, people are always trying to get into our heads. Paul Matthews is the least of our worries.
Photo courtesy of A24.
The post Dream Scenario appeared first on Spectrum Culture.