Nicolas Cage has become enmeshed in our collective cultural consciousness in a way that few stars have, particularly over the last decade as his distinctive meme-ready brand has grown. So it only seems natural for him to play a character who suddenly starts popping up in people’s dreams. Indeed, Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario presents a perfectly absurdist setup that allows Cage to flex his singular acting muscles in increasingly hilarious directions.
Mind you, this isn’t another “crazy Cage” role that the actor has become synonymous with in recent years. In Dream Scenario, he plays the defiantly unremarkable Paul Matthews, a schlubby professor of evolutionary biology at the fictional Osler University. Despite holding academic tenure and having an agreeable home life with his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), and two daughters, Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clement), Paul longs to be noticed on a grander scale. It’s a desire that he can barely contain when lecturing his students about the evolutionary advantages of zebras having stripes or when meeting with a former academic colleague who has just published a book on what Paul believes were his original scientific ideas.
Cage makes this inner turmoil keenly felt right away, while enthusiastically playing the butt of the joke every time Paul makes an embarrassing attempt to be accepted among his more accomplished peers. Paul’s wish sort of comes true, though, when he’s repeatedly told by others that he’s recently appeared in their dreams, first by his family members and acquaintances, then his students, then random people all over the country that he’s never met.
Overnight, he becomes an instant celebrity. But even this isn’t quite satisfactory for Paul, as his function in the dreams is to passively wander in while some kind of dramatic event plays out for the dreamer. “So I just stand there doing nothing?” Paul complains when someone relays their experience, getting increasingly irritated at this subconscious representation of his inadequacy.
Cage turns Paul’s default mode of pathetic self-absorbed snivelling into the stuff of high art, in a performance that may bring to mind his anxiety-ridden turn in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, especially considering the Kaufman-esque surrealism of the narrative. But a closer point of reference would be his titular role in Gore Verbinski’s The Weather Man, one of Cage’s best and most underrated performances. Like his doofus meteorologist Dave Spritz in that film, Paul Matthews strives for greatness and recognition in a vain attempt to win the favor of his exasperated family, instead only pushing them, and everyone else in his orbit, farther away.
Blessed with such a committed central performance, Borgli pushes his outlandish premise in as many hysterically screwy directions as he can. As Paul’s fame rockets, he’s contacted by the baseball cap-wearing Trent (a reliably deadpan Michael Cera), the ironically detached CEO of “Thoughts,” a new age social marketing company. Trent quickly proposes a plan to advertise (or, rather, mindvertise) corporate products like Sprite in the heads of the people whose dreams he enters, something which Paul initially balks at before doltishly going along with it.
Meanwhile, Paul’s dream doppelganger does eventually start taking greater action. One of Dream Scenario’s funniest moments sees Trent’s assistant (Dylan Gelula) asking Paul to recreate an aggressive sex dream that she had with him, which our meek protagonist promptly flubs in magnificent fashion. Then, when Paul’s doppelganger starts becoming a Freddy Krueger-like boogeyman, violently attacking and murdering the dreamers, his 15 minutes of fame are up. Without missing a beat, Trent adapts to Paul’s subsequent public shaming by positing sit-downs with far-right types like Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson.
Throughout Dream Scenario, Borgli clearly has numerous targets in his satirical sights, from cancel culture to corporate influencer lifestyle (a late-film gag about “dreamfluencers” is spot on). Yet while consistently amusing, it doesn’t seem like Borgli ultimately has much to say about any of this, making the film’s critiques seem rather unfocused and slight. One can gradually sense his struggle to figure out how to wrap up the delirious house of mirrors that he’s built, since he’s mostly flitted from one thing to the next in make-it-up-as-you-go fashion.
Borgli’s last film, Sick of Myself, is also a hip fount of derision centered around a frustratingly two-dimensional character, but Cage provides a real emotional core to this one’s offbeat and occasionally glib proceedings. At the root of Paul’s angst is the simple desire to find a publisher for his long-gestating book on ants, something he hopes he’ll eventually get through his new public exposure. “That’s a tough audience pivot,” Trent replies in coporate-speak.
Of course, Paul only gets pushed further down the rabbit hole of our capitalist world, yet Cage never lets us forget his character’s universal desire to just achieve the one small thing he’s always wanted to achieve. This culminates in a final scene that powerfully brings the inane and the poignant together in perfect sync. It’s the kind of performance dreams are made of.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
