Spoilers want to tell you how you next dream ends.

By this feature’s premise, I’d probably be skipping it. I do like weird concepts in films, but dread the whole social media portrayal in films. There are its exceptions, but the toxic culture is really getting dated. The plot is interesting except for the whole mediocre everyman chosen here as the protagonist, which would make me dodge this film except it’s Cage. And Cage, as much as he can get it right or wrong, he rarely makes a dull film. So, let’s see if this one’s worth staying up for.

(Credit: A24)

Dream Scenario (2023) was written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. Paul Matthews (Nicholas Cage) is a hapless family man but a tenured professor at prestigious learning institution where he teaches… Nevermind. He’s a dull and boring privileged nobody. His wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) mostly tolerates him. They have two teenage daughters: Hannah (Jessica Clemens) and Sophie (Lily Bird). It is Sophie who begins the premise by narrating to her dad a dream she had. In it, Paul appears to be a bystander just to the side, without any role.

As it soon will become apparent, Paul starts appearing in people’s dreams doing exactly that – just standing to the side without any hints of getting involved in the dream. As he learns this and goes viral, the most petty aspects of him come out. Regardless of stating to his wife, this means nothing to him he soon doesn’t matter giving an interview or posing for pictures. And you can probably guess that eventually Paul tries to capitalize on his fame and things go wrong.

But as many of Paul’s reluctant acquaintances, he’s not someone anybody really considers close or invites to dinner parties… ever. And to be honest, Cage plays a rather deluded, privileged and petty persona rather well. I couldn’t help by see some Woody Allen in this character. After Paul decides to see if he can use his fame and write a book (of which he’s never written a single word), he ends up trying to sleep around with a young assistant. After an embarrassing and cringy episode, karma sends him a curveball as everyone’s dreams about Paul turn into nightmare. Now, he becomes persona non grata as he is publicly ostracized. Insert commentary about cancel culture here.

The comedy consist of the awkward and the cringe, but also it’s hard to empathize with Paul as a protagonist with very little spark and no redeeming qualities to speak of. As his life gets ruined, he keeps crying out the injustice over things that other people do to him. In his selfishness he forgets how much his family end up suffering in the unforgiving public eye. In the court of public opinion, he’s guilty as sin.

What does work and I wanted highlighted are the dream sequences from everyone, which is where this movie gets the more visually creative. Once these stop, the film enters a lull that almost had me close to giving up. It’s the late third act (or fourth?) where Paul is building a life of whatever crumbs he can get where there’s a slightly upwards second wind. The film eventually ends on a dream, but one that doesn’t really feel earned by the character.

Somewhat recommended for fans of the weird and unusual with reservations. Nicholas Cage turns in a fine performance of an unsympathetic character. After the ups and down of a fame unasked for and unearned, we end up with someone who seems to still seems to be scrambling for crumbs of his privilege life. Perhaps watchable for a Nicholas Cage completist or a rainy day.

That will do for now.