Dream Scenario review: Nicolas Cage meta meets Nightmare on Elm Street

The following review is a summary of the findings. Dream Scenario comes from the film’s premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released on November.

The moment Huge talent can be a burden. was announced, it drew a lot of excitement by promising a meta movie that fully embraced Nicolas Cage’s meme status and over-the-top roles by letting him play himself. Cage isn’t repeating the exact same trick with Dream ScenarioThe new film by I’m Sick Of MyselfFilmmaker Kristoffer Bogli is produced by Hereditary The following are some examples of how to get started: Midsommar A24 releases Ari Aster, director. The character of his in Dream Scenario isn’t named “Nicolas Cage.” But the movie feels like an even more meta and poignant exploration of his status as an online meme.

Best described as a funny prequel Nightmare on Elm Street we didn’t know we needed, Dream Scenario has Cage’s character, Paul Matthews, becoming famous for reasons completely out of his control: He begins appearing in the dreams of people around the world. Suddenly, he’s famous, but that fame comes with unparalleled judgment.

Borgli’s script feels tailor-made for Cage, who told audiences after the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival that he immediately connected with the story of viral fame. Ten years ago, a YouTube montage of Nicolas Cage characters having meltdowns, titled “Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit,” blew up online, with no context provided for any of the performances. Cage believed he could not control the reception of his videos. For young audiences in particular, Cage’s acclaimed performances and Best Actor Academy Award are less important than his meme status, and the parade of smaller, stranger movies where he plays volatile weirdos and over-the-top characters to the point of self-parody.

The role of the spokesman is crucial. Dream Scenario Cage can use this opportunity to show off his outstanding work as a character. Paul Matthews is possibly the most boring man in the world: a schlubby, balding, bearded, unpublished evolutionary biology professor who can’t hold the attention of his students, his daughters, or his wife. While hints of Cage’s more outsized, exaggerated performance skills surface in Paul, used for exquisite comedic purposes, he’s mostly just a bland, silent guy who would pass in any situation without being noticed.

This makes it very strange that so many people who don’t know him start dreaming about him at the same time. And he doesn’t even do anything in these dreams. In these dreams, he just walks or stands behind the action and has a blank look on his face. Even if the dreamer has a bad nightmare of being disemboweled, this is still true. Paul just stands apathetically on the sidelines — a hilarious sight that heavily recalls the way Ari Aster contrasts extremity and mundanity, particularly in his 2023 oddity Beau Is Afraid.

Paul’s presence in other people’s dreams turns him into an overnight celebrity, even though he’s literally done nothing to earn that fame. This seems to be a commentary on the many cases of viral celebrity. Paul’s new fame is interesting, but he is more interested in using it to achieve his goal of being published. This goal, however, is more of a jealous revenge for a colleague who, many years before, published some ideas Paul spoke about in passing but did not act on. Cage is fantastic at playing Paul’s pathetic attempts at acting the part of a worldwide idol, the small delights he takes in becoming what he thinks people see him as. He’s a sympathetic character, but not one audiences are intended to actually support.

Photo: Karen Ballard/Lionsgate

Dream Scenario’s vague, nebulous type of fame gives Borgli an avenue to comment on celebrity and its price without taking a specific stand. He’s just exploring the cost of being highly visible, being up for endless interpretation by total strangers, and being disconnected in the public eye from any actual real-world intentions or actions. Once Paul starts deliberately taking a more active role in people’s dreams, the script takes a Charlie Kaufman-esque approach, playing with the ideas around so-called cancel culture as part of the world of instant fame. The visuals are also kept fresh and exciting, despite the film’s full veer into nightmare horror.

Dream ScenarioIn its third act, the film starts to lose some steam. Borgli’s script tries to remain separated from our reality, trying not to draw direct parallels between Paul’s experiences and real celebrity scandals. (Thousands of people dreaming about you murdering them isn’t exactly the same as posting an offensive tweet.) But the references to buzzy terms like “cancel culture,” the mentions of Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, and the cavalcade of unexpected yet impeccably used cameos make it hard to separate the film’s absurdist world from our own, even amid a third-act bit that feels straight out of South Park.

You can also find out more about Dream Scenario, Borgli The film tries to address hot topics, but then throws them away before they get too complex or real. But the film’s saving grace is the way it keeps its messages about fame grounded in the experiences of an ultimately unremarkable, notably dumb protagonist. The ending doesn’t land, but there’s no denying the hilarious, poignant two-thirds that precede it.

A24 is set to release Dream ScenarioIn theaters Nov. 10,