Dream Scenario comes from Kristoffer Borgli, a Norwegian filmmaker who recently made fan favourite, Sick of Myself, a film in his native language about the lengths we will go for attention. In this film, the strive for attention is flipped and forced upon Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) as he starts inexplicably appearing in people’s dreams, beginning with his own daughter. The film deals with fame and some slightly suspicious views on cancel culture, critiquing the current landscape of influencers and the marketability of viral sensations.
Paul Matthews is a generic man, a professor teaching some absent minded youths about zebras and the like. He mentions that he is revered and flaunts his intelligence, while failing to convince anyone around him, especially his own two daughters. The only one who seems to respect him in any way is his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) who stands by his side while his life gets flipped upside down after appearing in people’s dreams. In an almost apocalyptic setup, we get the trickles of introduction to the concept, first with his daughter’s dream, then a brief mention in class, to an ex-girlfriend, saying he was appearing in all sorts of dreams of hers.
This snowballs, with more and more people saying that they are seeing Paul in their dreams, doing nothing but observing events. He is pretty upset by this, hoping his dream self would be doing something a bit more notable than just creeping on the minds of people who he doesn’t know.
Suddenly, Paul is the most interesting man in the world, doing interviews and signing to a management agency which is going to help him publish a book that he’s been meaning to write for years. Although, through this time, the dreams start to change, and he is suddenly getting involved in the dreams, often times causing pretty visceral nightmares for those who experience it. Now his fame has changed and he is being ostracised and judged for actions that his dream self is doing.
The film is silly, and has some genuinely laugh out loud moments, especially in the setup. For the second half, we take a more serious tone, as Paul’s relationship with fame changes. There is still a lightness to the film though, mostly with the concepts of the dreams that we see. They are as dreams sometimes are, outlandish and just slightly uncanny from our reality. Once Dream Paul gets more involved in the second half dreams, we can see the promise that Borgli could have for a terrifying horror film. I was deeply uncomfortable with some of the setups of these dreams and could understand how having a real person to put your fears into could be a thing, if this concept was to be a reality.
Nicolas Cage is so perfect for this role, he is more subdued than a lot of his other vibrant roles as of late but plays the awkward Paul so well, with a faux confidence and weak sense of self. He is simple and irrational at times, towing the line of our opinions, where we might start to empathise with the dreamers instead of him.
The film overall has strong performances, with Michael Cera and Kate Berlant standing out to me as the creative leads of “Thoughts?”, the marketing agency that Paul signs to when he starts his fame journey.
It is unusual for a comedy like this to have such creative intent behind it, with a very distinct filmic look, grainy and cosy. It presents a pretty “small” looking film, with a lot of the conversations being close up on the characters and an emphasis on a static shot.
There are some really nice exceptions to the static rule, using a lot of mirrors to shoot conversations, in interesting ways.
The editing is done by Borgli, and follows a similar style to Sick of Myself, with some really quick and jarring cuts, in succession, while also keeping a good flow to the scene. The style worked for me, but I can see why people would find it off putting, maybe at times realising the editing and recognising the cuts, especially when the pacing is inconsistent at times.
The sound is also cut at times, never at a point where context is missed for the sake of music, but again, I can see this being slightly contentious for some people.
The concept for this film is one that does feel comparable to a viral “sensation” where all of a sudden, everyone knows who you are and loves you, suddenly you get a bit too big and are a villain to everyone. I think the way in which this film handles this idea can come across as a little sour. It satirises a change in political platform that many people do once put in a position of backlash, latching onto the Joe Rogan’s of the world to claim victimhood. It is hard to know where satire and commentary meet, especially in a surreal film like this but I like to believe it is all in good intention. The fact that Paul is villainised for actions he didn’t do is pretty silly, but within the context of the story, is given weight to it that would make you believe the people are genuinely affected by Dream Paul’s actions. It is hard to put yourself in his position and not feel kind of similar to how he feels, completely out of control of how he is perceived by the world, judging him only on how he acts while they are asleep. You understand his desperation to be reconsidered for who he is and not who is being portrayed as in their dreams.
I will say, if I was in this situation, I would be capitalising on it way more than Paul did. My “In your dreams” merch sets would be on sale within five days of me knowing that people were mass dreaming of me.
With my two Borgli films being successes, I am excited for whatever he does next, in some batshit, comedic, filmic style. Although, I am mostly just pushing for him to do a horror.
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