Imagine this—you’re a schlubby professor, an everyman, the kind of dad who makes people roll their eyes and say, “okay, Boomer,” and you’re okay with it. And then, suddenly, you begin appearing in people’s dreams. Not just the people who know you—everyone begins to see you in their dreams. And with social media being what it is, your fifteen minutes of fame are coming up fast.
This is the premise of writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, from A24. Oh, and did we mention that Nic Cage is starring?
Borgli is a Norweigan director, and this is his first English language film. His 2022 debut, Sick of Myself, dealt with a dysfunctional pair of performance artists who are chasing social media fame. Dream Scenario seems concerned with the same kind of parasocial relationships and dives into the weird, supernatural, imaginary relationships people have with the folks they only know about because they’ve seen their face.
Now I’m a self-admitted Nic Cage stan. I even loved his over-the-top campy Dracula in Renfield. Dream Scenario seems to show the just-barely-there restraint that brought Cage back into the spotlight with Pig mixed with the self effacing qualities of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. And I love it when Cage does his thing. “It was one of the best scripts I’ve read, quite frankly, and I think it’s my best performance and probably the best movie I’ve ever made,” said Cage in a press release.
The film additionally stars Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, and Dylan Baker.
Dream Scenario will release in theaters on November 10.
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