Directed by: Kristoffer Borgli
Written by: Kristoffer Borgli
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula
Rating: [4/5]
Life in the limelight serves as a double-edged sword where love & adoration can change to anger and vitriol in a Hollywood minute. Those who have experience with it can usually afford the best PR firms on retainer, who can help riding the wave that inevitably transpires. However, the average Joe does not and in Dream Scenario we see this shift in such an inventive manner and while it has its shortcomings, it certainly more than makes up for it.
Unassuming and quite unremarkable, Paul Matthew (Nicolas Cage), a college professor, begins to appear in random people’s dreams. With no real reason for this occurring, the dreams begin to shift of him acting like a hero, which gains him plenty of notoriety as he gets thrust into the spotlight for things, once again, completely out of his control.
Ascribed aplenty as a film tacking “cancel culture,” Dream Scenario seeks to speak on the fickleness of public perception and the zeal we all take in building people up and consequently tear them down. It serves as this game for us, but as this film shows, this impacts real people as we see the fallout this has on someone not used to sitting in the spotlight and the humor and little bits of societal horror allow for this film to feel like an enriching experience. Sure, one could relate this to “cancel culture” but those instances in the real world transpire after someone has done a wrong, a real wrong, where Paul has no control of either his rise nor his fall. In fact, this phenomenon never truly gets explained and it really should not, as it further expresses how little control Paul has not only of how this impacts others, but also how those impacted react to him because of his appearance in their dreams. It allows an even better examination of this character and the journey he goes on trying to feel as if he has accomplished things and the arc that goes with it.
Sitting squarely at the center of this film we have the ever-great Nicolas Cage, who’s having quite a run thus far in the 2020s with his selection of films. In this film he manages to combine both his weirdness and genuinely fantastic acting ability in the effort of turning Paul into a character worth following. He rides through his journey with him as someone who believes he has missed out on much in life through the fault of others, even if he has anything one could ever want. Then seeing this rise, we see some of that humility shed away as someone receiving attention in a way they never claimed to have wanted but now desperately wants to keep up. Cage channels this perpetual awkwardness that allows some endearment to remain with him throughout the entire experience, as Paul proves as the perfect vessel for this little experiment.
In establishing this journey, this film dives into the strangeness of everything happening and each of the dreams they display exhibit this very notion. From the randomness of Paul appearing as someone raking some leaves, to him attacking someone in a nightmare, or even serving as a vessel for sexual desire in a wet dream for others. Each of these scenes carry little bits of inventiveness in molding Paul to whatever this phenomenon wants to portray him as. In a sense, each of these scenes appear as a short that further brings in the audience into the same experience as the other individuals in the film.
With the stakes involved, Dream Scenario also does a great job in balancing its tone, which mostly lands in the comedic as we have Paul living within the absurdities of this situation and how he reacts to it but also the genuine reaction of others. Where Paul thinks he can leverage this situation and the reality of what options he actually has before him make for both the saddest and funniest moments the film has to offer. Nicolas Cage’s comedic timing certainly helps in making all the comedy work, especially in producing all of those gut-busting moments where he truly cannot comprehend everything happening to him.
Trying to call Dream Scenario the “cancel culture” movie feels quite reductive because the film seeks to exist as something a bit more in its character examination of Paul in addition to the way society reacts to this phenomenon. Coming in as quite the surprise, this film dropped out of nowhere and seeks to create something that not only seeks to entertain but also leaves audiences thinking about our mob mentality at times. Everything comes together and gets squarely on the shoulders of Nicolas Cage, who dives right into the inherent strangeness of this idea and the overall execution of what we receive in the final product.
Films with Josh 
