Dream Scenario

There are some ideas so simple yet so brilliant that a mere logline piques your interest. I wasn’t yet aware of Kristoffer Borgli and his style, but the idea of one man appearing in everyone’s dreams was incredibly intriguing. Charlie Kaufman is my favorite writer, and this concept seemed akin to something he would write, seemed in his spirit, though Ari Aster’s producing credit challenged this. Add in Nicolas Cage playing said man, and it seemed as though Dream Scenario was designed specifically for me. 

I had high expectations for this film as a fan of Kaufman, Cage, and Aster (for the most part). I had also checked out Borgli’s previous film Sick of Myself, which had a very distinct style that I fell in love with. This only increased my excitement for Dream Scenario. As a result, I went to see the film at the very first showing I could.

Unfortunately, Dream Scenario is a very uneven film that bites off far more than it can chew. The film unnecessarily overcomplicates its simple premise and as a result ends up a simultaneously overstuffed and empty mess. The film wants to tackle modern subjects such as cancel culture, social media, and how fame works in the modern day. However, the dream analogy — the main hook of the movie — doesn’t correlate at all with the topics the film is trying to compare it to. We see Cage’s character Paul, quickly rise to fame from appearing in everyone’s dreams, and then just as quickly fall from grace as his dream persona starts to turn violent and vindictive towards the people dreaming. If the film is trying to use this scenario as “commentary” on cancel culture, it simply doesn’t work. Paul doesn’t do anything wrong, and his downfall is entirely due to things he has no control over. In the real world, people rarely get their lives ruined over things that didn’t happen. If the film is trying to represent those few people brought down by fake stories, it doesn’t do a good job at making that comparison clear.

Obviously, there is more to a film than what it’s trying to say politically or socially. Outside of the muddling social commentary, Dream Scenario has several positive aspects. For one, the filmmaking here is quite impressive, especially when it comes to the subtle differences in how the dream scenes and the reality scenes are depicted. There’s an eeriness to the dream sequences that is really effective, and the film almost doubled as a horror film at points. I didn't really expect those elements going in, but given the Aster connection, perhaps I should've. Another highlight is Cage’s performance. Cage is delightful in this film and gives what is perhaps one of his best performances. He captures the shift from a low profile professor to a man desperate for fame and love quite brilliantly.

Honestly, there is a good chunk of the film that is quite clever: the set up and entire first act are quite strong. But once the film starts to shift towards its darker elements, it spirals out of control. Cage’s character gets unlikable very quickly, which could have worked well since the one thread that kept me engaged was seeing his true self come to the surface. We see early on some signs of him being an unfaithful husband. Once fame starts to change him, the film pays off this aspect of him, which is an example of some of its stronger writing. Alas, the weaker writing is more prominent, with the overstuffed third act in particular completely losing me by the time we reached the end of the film.

The weird shift in the third act into people inventing and commercializing a technology based on Paul’s experience, while humorous in theory, comes out of nowhere and completely throws off the pacing. For a film not even two hours long, it becomes quite exhausting by the end, and not in a way that felt particularly rewarding. The technology gimmick also seems quite unnecessary in the grand scheme of the film, as the ending it sets up could have been achieved without the device. The ending itself is quite sweet and is a solid conclusion, but by that point I was pretty checked out of the film.

Overall, Dream Scenario was sadly one of the biggest disappointments of the year. It was a promising yet ultimately messy work, that is made bearable by its strong premise and strong performances. If you’re a fan of Cage it’s worth a watch, but if you’re a fan of Kaufman or high concept ideas like this, you may be left wanting more.

5/10