Nicolas Cage is on awards-worthy form in hilarious satire Dream Scenario
We've all dreamed about people we know at some point, there's no controlling the unconscious after all. But what if suddenly everybody in the world, even people you've never met, started to dream of you?
That's the unique concept behind Dream Scenario, which offers Nicolas Cage another platform to showcase just why he's one of the most compelling actors out there. You've certainly never seen Cage play somebody so... ordinary.
Family man Paul Matthews (Cage) is more than happy with his lot in life as a tenured college professor who promises he'll write his book one day. His life is turned upside-down though when everybody starts to dream about him, introducing Paul to the idea of becoming viral and giving him fifteen minutes of fame.
But if you need to know how unremarkable Paul is, his appearances in the dreams see him do absolutely nothing. He just stands around observing, even if the person dreaming is undergoing an awful experience. That is until it's Dream Paul himself who becomes the catalyst for everybody's nightmares.
Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli's previous movie Sick of Myself was a provocative and uncomfortable satire of social-media fame. Dream Scenario takes on similar themes, skewering social media, cancel culture and more, but with a more mainstream appeal.
A large part of this is the presence of Nicolas Cage in the lead role. While Paul couldn't be further away from Cage himself, you can see the meta edge that casting the star as Paul brings to the movie. Cage is no stranger to going viral and the negative aspects of that experience ("Not the bees!" being used as a shorthand for a bad performance, for instance).
This isn't a semi-autobiographical tale though. Cage is about as far away as possible from what you might expect, delivering a restrained performance as the socially awkward Paul. He strays into meme-worthy histrionics when peoples' dreams turn into nightmares worthy of a horror movie, but mostly this is Cage as you've rarely seen him.
Cage is also as funny as you've seen him in some time. It's a different vein of comedy to the self-mockery of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent; it's more in line with cringe comedy as Paul always finds the wrong way to react to everything. Dream Scenario is never mean-spirited though, often it's very silly such as with a stand-out fart joke.
Borgli isn't subtle in the jibes he's making with Dream Scenario, with lines like "trauma is a trend" and a marketing firm called "Thoughts?" who want to make Paul into a dream influencer. You won't come out with your mindset changed by the satire, but the movie frequently hits its marks to hilarious effect.
Come the final act, Dream Scenario does start to feel like a great idea in search of an ending. Borgli isn't interested in explaining anything about why Paul is appearing in dreams, turning his attention instead to how the idea would be exploited by others in outlandish, but horribly believable, ways.
There's a lot of ideas thrown around in the closing moments, all of which could have done with more exploration or focus. Paul gets a little lost in the mix, but it's a testament to Cage's performance that he injects genuine pathos into his performance however absurd the movie gets.
Dream Scenario might stumble a bit towards the end, but Nicolas Cage's performance never falters once. It's the kind of turn that could have Oscars voters dreaming of him for the first time since Adaptation.
Dream Scenario is out now in cinemas.
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