Dream Scenario (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Livin' the 'Dream'

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Taking a page from Charlie Kaufman's bleak, surreal human-condition comedies, this movie sustains its interesting idea until the very end, and benefits from Cage's fearlessly pitiable performance.

Tenured professor Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) lives an average life, teaching evolution theory to bored students and planning a book he hasn't even begun writing. One day, random people begin to recognize him, but can't figure out why. It seems that Paul has been appearing in strangers' dreams, doing nothing except walking by or observing.

He becomes instantly famous. He tries to use his newfound fame to find a publisher for his book, while eager agents merely want to use him to generate big advertising dollars. Things change as people's dreams turn from innocuous to violent and terrifying. Citizens begin panicking when the see Paul in the flesh. And Paul's increasingly agitated behavior doesn't do him any favors. How will Paul get out of this pickle?

Written and directed by Norwegian-born Kristoffer Borgli, Dream Scenario does things right by never explaining why this Paul Matthews/dream phenomenon is happening, nor what it's supposed to mean. We're left to experience the effects of it, to explore it, emotionally, without worrying about details.

It's not always an easy journey. Paul is as socially awkward as they come, always speaking too much when silence would be more effective, or trying to assert himself at the wrong times (and failing). He's also drastically insecure, taking nearly every small thing as a personal criticism.

However, like Beau Is Afraid (whose director, Ari Aster, is a producer here), the movie isn't an attack on Paul himself, but rather a satire of the vain, fickle, unsympathetic world that made him. (The cynical epilogue supports this idea.) Yet by the end, Dream Scenario leaves us with the thought that, despite all our faults, human connection is still the most precious thing there is.