As someone who often has strange, even unsettling dreams every night, I was really curious to see a movie about dreams, with the incomparable Nicolas Cage, no less. Cage isn’t a chameleon in the sense that he can disappear into any role, on the contrary, we go see his movies to see the Cage being Cage. He frequently plays a variety of eccentric characters, even when he plays a seemingly normal middle-aged man, he’s still undeniably peculiar.

Written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, Cage plays an average white guy with an equally generic name, Paul Matthews. The movie opens with a dream, which turns out to be Paul’s daughter Sophie’s (Lily Bird) where she’s in peril but her dad is just standing there passively. Apparently, Sophie isn’t the only one having the same strange dream involving him. Some of Paul’s students in his biology class, even a restaurant’s hostess, are having the same dream.

Paul’s mundane life is suddenly turned upside down when his ex from college publishes an article that she linked to his Facebook profile. Suddenly he gets thousands of messages from strangers telling him they’ve been dreaming of him. He quickly becomes an instant celebrity when he agrees to appear on local news, which further spreads this dream phenomenon like wildfire. As one would imagine, an unremarkable man who’s practically invisible to his own family and peers, this notoriety is a potent ego-booster. For a while, Paul revels in his newfound fame as everyone, including his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) pays more attention to him. On the flip side, Paul is also forced to deal with fame’s unpleasant consequences when his house gets broken into.

Things get more interesting when a viral marketing firm offers to represent Paul as they see him as a lucrative ‘brand’ they can capitalize on. The scene with the firm president Trent (Michael Cera) and his assistant Molly (Dylan Gelula) is hilarious as Trent and Paul clearly don’t see eye to eye. Paul just wants to get his book published and for the scientific community to see him as a brilliant, influential intellect he always imagines himself to be.

Borgli weaves comedy and tragedy seamlessly, as exemplified in the uncomfortably comical scene between Paul and Molly (a pretty girl half his age who’s been having erotic dreams about him). His astute script is quite the shapeshifter as it deftly morphs from comedy to a thriller with horror elements (A24 horror master Ari Aster serves as one of the movie’s producers, so that’s saying something). The dream scenario inexplicably turns violent when the formerly passive Paul becomes a brutal participant, so much so that everyone finds him terrifying and abhorrent. Soon the same people who raise Paul up are equally quick in tearing him down.

Cage is perfectly cast as a hapless man caught in a rollercoaster of newfound fame. He can be sweet one minute and unpredictable the next, with impeccable comic timing that’s utilized well here. He’s even funnier here than in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and it’s fun seeing him portray different aspects of his character. The balding look with dorky glasses scream ‘socially awkward’ and Cage nails the character’s ineptitude and self-absorbed tendencies. Nice to see the talented Julianne Nicholson in a prominent role here while Dylan Baker and Tim Meadows have brief scenes as Paul’s colleague and college dean, respectively.

While watching this, I immediately think of Dream Scenario as a commentary about parasocial relationships and cancel culture. I read an article about Borgli that it wasn’t his intention, but it certainly makes one think about our unhealthy obsession with social media and what the masses deem ‘important’ in our lives.

At 1 hour 42 minutes, the film is pretty tightly edited by Borgli himself, which is quite a feat. Now, the rather absurd dream-travel tech bit with all the dream influencers promoting it feels like a Black Mirror episode. The ending itself is actually melancholic and bittersweet, though some of the disturbing scenes are quite hard to shake. Overall this is an admirable work by Borgli, a highly original, genre-bending piece that actually has something interesting to say. Even with over 115 films, I’d rate this as one of Cage’s most memorable roles, definitely a must-see for fans of his work.

Have you seen DREAM SCENARIO? I’d love to hear what you think!