Dream Scenario: Movie Review

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Dylan Gelula, Michael Cera, Julianne Nicholson
Director: Kristoffer Borgli

A seemingly cautious tale about the perils of newfound fame, Kristoffer Borgli's Dream Scenario starts off in an offbeat manner and continues down that winding path to a slightly disturbing conclusion.

Cage is Paul Matthews, a balding, bewildered, Parka-clad college professor, whose career is stalled and whose desire to be a published author is frustrated. Sidelined at home, Matthews yearns to be more - and inadvertently finds that coming true when he is told by strangers that he appears nightly in their dreams.

Initially troubled by the comments that he's too passive in the dreams, Matthews leans into the new-found fame. But the more consumed he is by it, the more aggressively he appears in peoples' dreams, ultimately forcing them away from him.

A mix of comedy and horror, packed into a dreamlike state, Dream Scenario's rhythms take a bit to get used to as the more surreal and satirical edges come to the fore. But they never quite deliver something sharp and incisive about Matthews' predicament, nor do they explicitly say much about the social media world and ethos of fame they look to poke fun at.

Thankfully Cage delivers a strong performance as his character enjoys the trappings of fame while negotiating the crippling insecurities of his own. Borgli, whose last film Sick of Myself also ploughed a similar furrow, gets the best out of his lead, but never once mocks his predicament or his reaction to it. Cage is never beneath debasing his character but manages to keep it all together in scenes that both feel prescient and awkward.

The result is a kind of empathetic take on the narcissism of the culture, but with a more gentle edge throughout. Blessed with menace and sadness in equal measure, the dark comedy comes to the fore, but there's an inescapable lingering feeling at the end that it could have been more.