Dream Scenario Review
Theatrical Movie Review - Thriller/Comedy
I knew I had experienced a moment of internet fame when John Stamos and John Legend tweeted a link to something I wrote. At first, it was fascinating and a little exciting, but as time passed and some took umbrage with what I had written, it was overwhelming in a not-so-positive way. Fortunately, it faded as quickly as it started, and I moved back into obscurity, which was for the best. But that brief experience had me anxious to watch Kristoffer Borgi’s “Dream Scenario.”
Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is a mild-mannered professor spending his days teaching and his evenings with his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and his daughters Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clement). Sophie tells her dad about her dreams with him in them, all with him as a bystander in the events occurring. Later, he runs into an old girlfriend who explains that she has also experienced these dreams and writes about them on her blog. This leads to thousands more coming forward to share their experiences. Paul jumps on this as an opportunity for fame and recognition, but as Dream Paul takes a sinister turn, Real Paul finds that his fame is becoming more of a burden than a blessing.
I found this movie to be a fun and sometimes gruesome look at celebrity and cancel culture. Through the movie, we see that Paul seldom follows through on what he wants to do, often leaving him discontented. But even when he has access to the arenas that he feels are off-limits to him, he does not do the things he wants.
As always, Cage gives an impressive performance as Paul. He is a largely unlikable character, and Cage leans into that without making him monstrous before he needs to be. The rest of the cast does an excellent job supporting what we see in Paul. The performances of the supporting cast strengthen his transformation from milquetoast professor to nightmare fuel.
The humor in this film is the other element that makes it work so well. Sometimes, the jokes are a little on the nose, but overall, I found the entire movie entertaining in ways that had me laughing out loud more than once. The story is deeply absurdist, but I found it accessible in ways that something like “Beau Is Afraid” could not meet. My only quibble with the movie was a storyline near the end of the film that seemed to muddle the larger point a bit, but overall, I found this to be an entertaining and thought-provoking movie.
Andy Warhol once suggested that everyone will have 15 minutes of fame. In the days of social media and the internet, that fame is much easier to attain. “Dream Scenario” asks us if the ease of obtaining fame is worth the risk and suggests that true contentment is best found in what we already have rather than what we think we want.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on December 3, 2023.