During a bustling opening weekend at a film festival, the exhilaration of discovering a standout film amidst a sea of mediocrity can feel euphoric. This happened in 2022 when director Kristoffer Borgli made waves with his impressive dark comedy, Sick of Myself. This year he returns to the festival circuit with a remarkable new creation, Dream Scenario, which has solidified Borgli’s place as one of the most exciting new filmmakers on the scene.

Featuring a career-defining performance from Nicolas Cage, Dream Scenario follows Paul Matthews, an unremarkable middle-aged professor whose life takes an extraordinary turn when he appears in the dreams of millions of strangers. After he becomes a worldwide phenomenon, his role in the dreams turn from innocent bystander to violent aggressor. Paul grapples with his new found notoriety while dealing with the impact it has on his family, his ego, and his morals. Given Cage’s own history with becoming meme-ified on the internet, his portrayal of Paul takes on an even more meta dimension than when he played himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. While the story’s weight squarely rests on Cage’s shoulders, the supporting cast is just as memorable featuring standout performances from Julianne Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, and Michael Cera.

Dream Scenario follows the stylish aesthetics of the A24 brand and even has the stamp of director Ari Aster, who produced the film. The tone dances on the line between absurdist comedy and new wave horror but somehow transcends genre altogether. Borgli himself tried to describe it as a Kaufman-esque reversal of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The audio visual aspects create an immersive experience, pulling the audience into a dreamlike world of their own. Borgli skillfully integrates the dream sequences in a way that feels both seamless and inventive. At times it’s hard to distinguish reality, but there is always a feeling of uncanny valley in the dreams.

During the premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, Borgli revealed that the production design team would intentionally remove minor details when transitioning into dream sequences. For instance, in reality, books on a shelf had their regular titles and print, but in a dream they were just a row of text-less spines. The subtle yet affective choice really echoed what it’s like to fall into a dream, where the main characters and circumstances are so vivid but everything else dissolves into unidentifiable background noise. 

As the majority of Dream Scenario unfolds in an intriguing realm slightly removed from our familiar reality, the third act brings an uninvited turn into stark modernity. Once Paul Matthews becomes a predatory figment in people’s dreams, he succumbs to the same fate as many short-lived internet sensations these days; he gets cancelled. It’s hard to watch Borgli take such a meta-concept and turn it into a surface-level commentary on cancel culture. While it certainly doesn’t diminish the excellence of the movie as a whole, it’s definitely off-putting to hear the names Jordan Peterson and Tuckler Carlson in a surrealist film.

Despite the twenty-or-so-minute pedantic dwell on today’s extremely online generation, Borgli rounds out the film with a full circle and heart-wrenching ending. Without giving too much away, Dream Scenario would be a perfect double feature with the newly re-released Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense.

Dir: Kristoffer Borgli
Prod: Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Jacob Jaffke
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Michael Cera
Release Date: November 10, 2023