Overnight Fame Becomes a Nightmare For Nicolas Cage in ‘Dream Scenario’
Check out the quick review of Dream Scenario on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
In the days of content, creative output is often measured in terms of engagement, retention rate, clickthroughs, and other social media KPIs. Everything we do online is governed by ever-changing algorithms designed to maximize ad revenue for platforms, which can reduce people down to a schtick, a catchphrase, or a viral trend. The internet can make you a star, but it can just as easily destroy your life. Tale as old as time.
In Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage is Prof. Paul Matthews, a painfully average guy who becomes an overnight celebrity when he starts randomly appearing in people’s dreams. At first, Paul loves the attention and clout associated with being a character in the world’s collective subconscious. This nerdy professor is suddenly a cool guy, even a sex symbol to some. It affords him and his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) new opportunities at work and new respect from friends. It even opens a window for Paul to finally publish the book he’s been hoping to write for years.
In one of my favorite scenes, Paul meets with the staff of a marketing agency about ways to monetize his newfound fame. Michael Cera could not be more perfect as the founder of the company who explains that they could use his appearances in people’s dreams for product placement, much to the dismay of lifelong-academic Paul.
Soon this viral fame takes a darker turn when the dreams turn more menacing and Paul finds himself hated for things he only did in people’s minds. He’s not a monster, yet people are traumatized by brutal nightmares starring Paul as the antagonist. His students no longer feel comfortable around him and the dean of the school, an always on-point Tim Meadows, doesn’t know how to handle the situation. There’s no HR protocol for appearing in someone’s nightmares.
Cage is a perfect choice to lead here because he has always managed to walk that line between being a talented performer and a living internet meme. He’s an incredibly skilled actor who can give us nuance or introspection in one movie and scream about the bees in another. As they say, get you a man who can do both, and Cage can definitely do both. Here he makes Paul simultaneously pathetic and endearing. He’s so dorky that it becomes sweet and charming, and you feel bad when he is essentially milkshake ducked for things he never actually did.
As someone who has worked in social media marketing and watched the rise and fall of internet celebrities since the days of dial-up, I was completely enthralled with writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s story. As is so often the case for internet celebrities, the thing a person gets famous for doing is not always the thing they’d like to be known for. Paul wants to be a respected academic, an author of important works, but instead, he’s “that dream guy”. I was fully intrigued by how this film tackles the life cycle of internet fame, the way everyone wants to feel special or significant, the way capitalism has made us monetize our personalities, and the way the internet can reduce a person down to a meme.
The only downside of the film was the ending, which I won’t reveal other than to say it feels a bit too schmaltzy for a story with such biting satire and left me wondering if it was a later revision to the screenplay. A pre-ending end had the right dose of cynicism to conclude the story and part of me wishes it had cut to credits right there. But overall, Dream Scenario is a fantastic film, particularly if you’re well-versed in internet culture or fascinated with viral fame.
