Admittedly, it is a broad niche thanks to which actor Nicolas Cage (60) has found his way back onto the road to success. Most recently it was somewhere between drama, comedy, horror and fantasy and has existed at least since 2021, when Cage went on a surprisingly touching 90-minute search for his truffle pig in “Pig”. His new film “Dream Scenario” (in cinemas from March 21st) now combines these four genres into a grotesque in which modern fame culture is poked fun at in an imaginative way. With a Nic Cage in top form – and as Freddy Krueger with a half-bald head.
If you had to illustrate the term “normalo”, you would use a photo of the teacher Paul Matthews (Cage). Family man Paul, as much as he would like to strive for higher things as a non-fiction author, leads a down-to-earth and secure, but at the most average, life. A life that he initially willingly says goodbye to due to an unusual mass phenomenon – and a little later he longs for it more than ever.
Suddenly people around the world start seeing Paul in their dreams. The process is always the same at the beginning: While the people in the dream find themselves in a horror scenario, Paul suddenly appears as an apathetic spectator. As the mysterious, half-bald man appears to more and more people in their sleep, Paul’s true identity becomes known by chance – and the biology professor becomes world famous overnight. Paul really likes this status at first, as it makes him feel truly seen for the first time in his life. However, the joy quickly fades when his dream counterpart suddenly begins to take action – in a disgusting way.
In his debut work “Sick of Myself” (2023), Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli (39) dealt with unexpected fame and the negative effects it can have on people. In “Dream Scenario” he does this with a clear pointer to today’s Internet culture, in which someone becomes persona non grata just as quickly (and sometimes undeservedly) as they were previously made into a star.
But the character itself is also critically questioned: If someone literally becomes famous by doing nothing and enjoys fame to the fullest like Paul – can this person then complain if they also become the most hated person in the world for no reason?
It is a decidedly cynical look at reality that Borgli takes on a fantasy level in his film. Speaking of which: “Dream Scenario” is best as long as it lets off steam in the fantasy genre without a care in the world. Such films usually pay the price with their finale, which cannot satisfactorily tie down the strange plot. This is also the case to a certain extent with “Dream Scenario” – as if an explanation for Paul’s dream walks has been hastily grafted on and fantasy becomes sci-fi. With its last, quite touching scene, the film comes to a reconciliatory end.
“Dream Scenario” offers the entire spectrum of Nicolas Cage, which has always distinguished the actor. As teacher Paul Matthews, he is not only unflatteringly bald, he is charming to shabby, pitiful to unpleasant. At times he displays a melancholic, calm acting that he has already demonstrated in films such as “The Weather Man” (2005) or the aforementioned “Pig”. Towards the end, his performance becomes increasingly manic – in keeping with his character’s state of mind. At the latest when his alter ego begins to slash through the dreams of his victims like Freddy Krueger.
“Dream Scenario” takes a real development in our society and makes the criticism of it all the more striking through its fantasy plot. With thieving joy and somnambulistic security, Nicolas Cage wanders through the genre melange that director Kristoffer Borgli has devised – and which only runs out of creative breath towards the end.
