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| Director Krystoffer Borgli |
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| Borgli on the set with Nicolas Cage |
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| Borgli directing a scene |
DREAM SCENARIO B- USA (102 mi) 2023 d: Krystoffer Borgli
When a nerdy evolutionary biology professor (a balding Nicolas Cage) suddenly starts appearing in the dreams of hundreds of thousands of people, he becomes an immediate media sensation, seemingly harmless at first, with marketing strategists crafting get rich quick schemes of how to take advantage of his massive recognition, but when things take a dark turn, as the dreams grow violently terrifying, that instant stardom turns sour, becoming the object of derision, where he is literally shunned by the same society that initially embraced him. This is a cringeworthy satirical assessment of failed dreams, missed opportunities, and the devastating harm done by social media, where fame is equated to hysteria, as innocent people can easily be ostracized by false and fabricated accusations, where a herd mentality takes over with violent tendencies that blindly condemns anything out of the ordinary, as society has always embraced security through conformity, in this case leaving careers shattered and lives destroyed, paying little consequence for their bullying behavior, hiding behind the anonymity of their invisible lives, leaving behind a trail of reckless impulsiveness. Reminiscent of a terrifying scene in Jacques Audiard’s 2021 #6 Film of the Year Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades, Paris 13e) where a law student is mistaken for a porn star, with both male and female students openly demeaning her with cyber bullying and sexist taunts, forcing her to withdraw from school and alter her career, while also seemingly spawned from the wild imagination of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in Spike Jonze’s ADAPTATION (2002), where writer’s block turns into a screenwriter’s nightmare. The common thread here is actor Nicolas Cage, known for choosing oddball roles played with a strange, over-the-top quirkiness, where his extended range is allowed to shine in this film where he can be completely unfiltered, bringing an eccentric intensity into the role, from a mousy nobody to an unhinged maniac, appearing in ADAPTATION twenty years ago in perhaps the greatest performance of his career, utterly brilliant in a dual role as rival sibling screenwriters, earning an Oscar nomination, with this film feeling like an extension of that role, kind of an absurdist and often surreal writer’s fantasy written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli in his English language debut. Shot on 16mm film, giving this an intentionally grainy texture, using distorted sound and abrupt cuts that continually keep viewers off-balance, the film creates its own visual language.
The sheer audacity of the film is at times hilarious, taking us down a dark turn we’ve never taken before, yet what stands out is the utter cluelessness of Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a tenured professor with aspirations of publishing a book on the Swarm intelligence of ants, not exactly in everyone’s wheelhouse, but in his delusional and self-obsessed mind it’s something people should be interested in, where a driving force may be to pull him out of the obscurity of anonymity, resentful of his lack of notoriety, as he hungers for validation. While it’s been decades since his research in grad school, he still hasn’t published or even started writing anything. He leads a banal yet comfortable life with his architect wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and two teenage daughters, Hannah (Jessica Clement) and Sophie (Lily Bird), with the film opening with Sophie reluctantly floating into the air screaming for her Dad to help while he passively looks on, remaining conspicuously unconcerned, never showing any interest in his daughter’s anxiety. But it’s all a dream. Nonetheless, Paul grows defensive, baffled and embarrassed at having to explain his lethargic behavior in the dream to his daughter, trying to convince her this would never happen in real life. However, Paul is not a man of action, and may as well be invisible, as he’s the kind of guy people pass by on the street without giving him a second thought. For most people he simply doesn’t exist, forever lurking in the background. Even in his classroom, he’s largely ignored by students who are only there because it’s required, and are otherwise bored by his teaching methods, which generate no spark of interest. So when he starts appearing in their dreams, finding himself in the fantasies and nightmares of strangers, mostly as a non-intrusive bystander who simply happens to show up, watching the most horrible things happening to people without helping, he is there, but just stands around, useless and impervious to what’s happening to them. It wouldn’t really amount to much except their friends and other people they know also have the same kinds of dreams, where he always appears as a passively inert figure who just happens to be there, as if taking a wrong turn somewhere. To the film’s credit, they never offer any explanation for this astounding development, yet somehow it feels connected with just how unlikable Paul is in the eyes of others, perhaps a manifestation of his own subconscious feelings of self-loathing and inadequacy, becoming a hideous example of his own crippling insecurities.
Social media is what connects all these people together, as they’re surprised to discover the same man is appearing in all their dreams, becoming an instant celebrity, talked about on television reports, where Paul’s photograph becomes a viral Internet meme shared by people around the world, showering him with the attention he has long sought after, where it goes to his head, thinking he’s somehow responsible for this phenomenon, literally bathing in the limelight. “So, then I’m finally cool,” he says to his daughter, hoping it will draw attention to selling his book. He’s not alone, as others also try to capitalize on the moment, including an enterprising new-age PR firm called Thoughts? headed by CEO Trent (Michael Cera, always appearing in a baseball cap) and his associate Mary (Kate Berlant), suggesting Paul could enter a dream holding an advertised product, or have Obama dream about him, thinking they could rake in the money, literally naming their own price, as Paul is the hottest thing on the market, with Trent describing him as “the most interesting person in the world.” But the film veers off on another tangent when Trent’s attractive assistant Molly (Dylan Gelula) takes Paul aside and expresses a personal interest in spending some time with him, as in her dream Paul was an active participant in a sex fantasy, which catches him a bit off guard, as he was never active in another person’s dream before. This goes about how you might expect, as Molly is thrilled by the idea, but Paul fails to live up to what she imagines. It’s an unsettling experience causing humiliation and shame, yet it’s played for laughs, where the experience alters the entire tone of the picture, knocking him off his pedestal, suddenly becoming angry and testy with people, as he can’t control what is happening in their dreams. The subtle shift turns nightmarish, becoming disturbing and alarming, as Paul’s benign passivity in dreams grows more menacing, turning into a grotesque Freddy Krueger figure, where his instant stardom quickly fades, and people turn on him with a vengeance, becoming more aggressively vicious, hounding him wherever he goes, spray painting “Loser” on his car, where the entire world loathes what he’s become. They no longer want to have anything to do with him, including his own family, who reject him, tragically losing his job in the process, spiraling into a pathetic netherworld of exile and ostracization. The flip-flop into horror loses the acidic bite of satire, resembling something else altogether, yet the cruelty on display is staggering, mirroring what can happen when social media turns toxic and runs amok, leaving a hollow emptiness where reality used to be, creating a heartless, soulless landscape of what the world would look like without a human conscience.
