Capsule Review 'Dream Scenario'
Nicholas Cage enters his most meta role yet. First, he played an exaggerated version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and spoofed his role from 1998's Vampire's Kiss by playing Dracula in Renfeild. Now Nick is entering our minds in Dream Scenario. Kristoffer Borgli writes and directs something of a modern version of Being John Malkovich, where the appearance of one man becomes a sensation.
Instead of it being a supermodel or a rockstar, everyone gets a nobody in their dreams. It's as if the commoner is part of ourselves. And that part is what's missing in our subconscious. We only see images of a certain kind of beauty that the media displays through a narrow lens of folks who are tall, thin, ripped, and tanned. Those are the people who are usually on TV, and they're also the people who appear in our dreams.
Paul Matthews (Nicholas Cage) becomes a viral star without needing to look like Ryan Gosling to win hearts. When people first dream of Paul, he's not doing anything in the dream. For instance, when his daughter Hannah (Jessica Clement) dreams of her dad, he's just raking the leaves as she floats away in the air, along with each falling leaf going up with her. In everyone's scenarios, Paul doesn't do anything. He's passive. Is it representative of Paul needing to do something different with his life? Is doing the same thing equivalent to doing nothing?
When going viral, a company called "Thoughts" wants to exploit Paul's fame. Paul wastes no time jumping on the fame train, making a social media video of himself talking about how being in everyone's dream makes him feel. The answer to that feeling is damn good. Fame does come at a price, as everyone's dreams about Paul become nightmares. When Paul is no longer passively in someone's consciousness and is active in them, he becomes a symbol of horror. Although Paul has never done anything to harm anyone in real life, it doesn't stop the public from vilifying him.
It's the adage of setting people on a pedestal only to knock them down. What happens to Paul isn't dissimilar to what happened to Tiger Woods. Tiger may have been unfaithful to his wife, but was it reason enough to destroy his reputation? Paul's not actively choosing to be in people's nightmares, yet he shows up in them anyway. Furthermore, Paul doesn’t take any accountability for his twenty minutes of fame. He is excited right away that he’s appearing in everyone’s subconscious, jumping on social media, embracing his newfound fame.
Although Paul doesn’t handle his notoriety well, how could anyone in his position? When things go south for Paul, he plays the victim, only making things worse for him. By turning one of the most recognizable actors into an everyday man, Kristoffer Borgli makes his dreamy concept soar.
We see Nicholas Cage everywhere, so his entering our dreams isn’t too far of a stretch. The film emphasizes a physically unfit Cage to make him appear average. What isn't average is the quality of this film. Dream Scenario is a laugh riot, profound picture about fame, and cancel culture that will have you in stitches in one of its many scenarios.
Dream Scenario played at The Chicago International Film Festival on October 14. Its wide release is on November 10
