The comedy “Dream Scenario,” directed and written by Kristoffer Borgli, has been compared to Charlie Kauffman’s productions by Sakri Pölönen. The movie stars Nicolas Cage, who is known for his “shamanic” and larger-than-life characters. In the film, Cage plays the role of Paul Matthews, an evolutionary biology professor who starts appearing in the dreams of thousands of people.
Despite being a renowned actor, Cage’s character in the film is portrayed as an ordinary man with a bald head and professorial sweaters, who doesn’t do anything special. His character becomes a celebrity, bruising the ego of the academically slighted man. As the story progresses, Paul’s character turns from a passive visitor into a Freddy Kruger-like murderer and rapist.
The film initially presents a unique and imaginative setting, but eventually falls into the familiar parody of cancel culture and hypersensitive students. However, Cage’s neutral presence in the film is enough to cause laughter.
“Dream Scenario” can be compared to Charlie Kaufman’s productions, particularly his scripts for “Being John Malkovich” (1999) and “Adaptation” (2002), in which Cage plays a similar role. Unlike Kaufman’s works, which sometimes descend into exhausting nihilism, “Dream Scenario” lacks the emotional depth of Kaufman’s brain games.
Borgli’s previous directorial work, the body horror satire “Sick of Myself” (2022), was screened at a festival in Finland. “Dream Scenario” marks Borgli’s first American production. The film was produced by Ari Aster, whose latest work, “Beau Is Afraid” (2023), also collapsed towards the end. Despite their differences, both “Beau Is Afraid” and “Dream Scenario” are said to have underutilized their potential.
The film also features Julianne Nicholson, Tim Meadows, and Michael Cera.
