‘Dream Scenario’ movie review: Cage captivates the ordinary in amusing reflection on cancel culture
By now, we’re so familiar with the sight of Nicolas Cage completely losing his shit on screen that his performance in last year’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent served as something of a parody of the actor’s career thus far. That’s why his recent role in Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, produced by A24, is perhaps one of Cage’s most refreshing performances to date.
Cage plays utterly against type in one of the best casting decisions of the past few years as Paul Matthews, a balding and utterly forgettable evolutionary psychology professor who, through some strange phenomenon, begins to appear in the dreams of others, including both those he knows and does not.
Paul is a pitiful character; he has a sexless marriage with his wife Janey, his kids think he’s completely uncool, his students ignore his lectures, and his former lovers steal his academic work and then refuse to credit him when their papers are published. And even in dreams, Paul is a bystander amidst danger, catastrophe and excitement.
For that’s how things begin, with a dream as Paul merely looks on as dreamers are chased down by evil spirits in darkened forests, mauled to death by alligators in university corridors and experience every other horrific slumbered possibility imaginable. All Paul can do, though, typical of his real-life self, is sort of trudge along without actually helping anyone or even caring.
But naturally, Paul, desperate for some attention after years in the shadows of others, is delighted to discover he’s at least famous for something, even if it’s not for his scientific research. With fame, though, comes all its pressures, and Paul must traverse the technological venture capitalists of today who try to make him feature in an advert for Sprite, a reflection on the lows those with popular desires must stoop to.
Paul’s suddenly a celebrity, a once unremarkable man who somehow now has sex appeal, at least in those wishing to live out their dream-like fantasies in reality. But, hilariously, even the most exciting person in the world is still wholly dull.
That’s at least until the dream in which Paul starts acting wildly differently, violently even, and suddenly he is no longer the celebrated flavour of the month but a newfound victim of cancel culture, the most hated man in the world, made all the more harrowing by the fact that he hasn’t actually done anything wrong, nor did he ever ask or intend to appear in the dream world.
And that essentially becomes the point of Borgli’s movie, a reflection on our contemporary ills: the desperation to become famous, its ugly consequences, the unfortunate nature of cancel culture and its seemingly inescapable nature once a “victim” is indeed caught in the net. There are plenty of contemporary references, too, the fated “apology video” and “trauma” and all the other psychological buzzwords that seem to have taken on a new social meaning all of their own accord in recent times.
Ultimately, though, Dream Scenario is just outright painfully funny. There’s an undeniable tragedy à la The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm, a somehow unbelievable inevitability that Paul can never quite shake off, seemingly destined toward a path of calamity and shame. There’s also one of the finest fart jokes audiences are likely ever to see.
The more profound social significance is what plays against its comic nature, though. It’s a point of frustration that a reason for Paul’s repeated dream appearance is never really provided and is actually drawn away from just as we begin to have our suspicions, though perhaps this is intended to represent the ever-fading nature of fame that Paul was once so desperate to gain and is then so eager to be free from.
The opening half of Borgli’s film is brimming with excellent comedy, flawlessly performed by Cage in this vital role of being the most average man in the world, a far cry from his usual efforts. Though the deeper meaning and symbolism are perhaps glossed over a touch too quickly, they are not without their merit and make Dream Scenario one of the more exciting and unique takes on the black comedy genre of the last decade or so.
