There are such a lot of various factors at play in relation to how viral sensations go viral that it may be laborious to pinpoint what, precisely, made the individuals behind them attention-grabbing within the first place. However in Dream Scenario, A24’s new darkish comedy from author / director Kristoffer Borgli, there may be zero query why everybody’s so obsessive about probably the most well-known particular person on the planet, and that readability highlights some deeply unsettling truths about our current age of parasocial relationships.
Set in an extraordinary world the place lecturers should beg college students to concentrate and fleets of PR professionals work laborious to maintain individuals fascinated by nothing however model names, Dream Situation tells the story of Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), an evolutionary biology professor who — like many unremarkable middle-aged males — appears like he’s been dealt a nasty hand in life. Paul’s spouse Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and their younger daughters Sophie (Lily Chicken) and Hannah (Jessica Clement) all love him and take to his examine of ant behaviors with various levels of curiosity.
Although they’re not as hyped as Paul himself, his household continues to be pleased with him for writing a e-book based mostly on his analysis. However when Paul’s e-book debuts to zero fanfare, he can’t assist however wonder if he’s losing his life away — a worry bolstered by the way in which many individuals in Paul’s orbit, like colleagues Brett (Tim Meadows) and Richard (Dylan Baker), deal with him as a forgettable NPC quite than an individual together with his personal ideas and emotions.
Regardless of how laborious Paul tries, he can’t get his friends to see him as something greater than a background participant of their ongoing tales. However when individuals throughout your entire world who’ve by no means met, seen, and even heard of Paul inexplicably begin to have shockingly vivid desires that includes him, he turns into a world phenomenon and the form of celeb that the general public thinks it desires to know all the things about.
Dream Situation opens and incessantly postures itself as an absurdist comedy that’s deliberately capitalizing on Cage’s real-world standing as an eccentric cinematic folks hero. Paul’s a little bit of an oddball liable to awkward matches of inappropriate laughter in everybody’s waking lives, however he’s not all that a lot to write down house about at first. Even as soon as he begins showing in strangers’ desires, Paul hardly ever does something exceptional apart from be there, disengaged and unaware of how curious the issues taking place round him are.
As dream Paul’s nocturnal cameos develop into more and more widespread, although, an increasing number of individuals start to really feel as in the event that they’ve seen him someplace in one thing, as a result of they’ve. And that’s greater than sufficient for manufacturers to return banging on Paul’s door providing him a style of the popularity he desperately yearns for.
Dream Situation shape-shifts wildly with every of its fantastical dream sequences wherein Paul appears on whereas individuals cope with all kinds of psychological baggage. Some individuals’s recurring desires look like flashes from pure catastrophe movies, whereas others really feel extra science-fictional or akin to erotic thrillers. The one frequent thread between all of them is dream Paul, who’s all the time there watching however seldom doing something of observe — a element that bothers actual Paul deeply. However as many questions because the mass dream phenomenon ought to increase, only a few individuals are all for asking them as a result of they’re too busy being caught up within the pleasure of the bigger second.
In Paul — a easy, well-meaning man who takes to fame with something however grace — you may see flashes of the full-tilt hamminess Cage is able to. And that telegraphs the movie’s darkish, fascinating flip that comes as individuals’s desires that includes the professor begin to develop into violent nightmares.
The movie’s most attention-grabbing articulations of the hazards posed by viral fame don’t come as fiery speeches from an embittered Paul or as considerations expressed by his family members. As a substitute, Dream Situation highlights the concept by depicting a society so preoccupied with parasocial relationships that nobody stops to consider what anybody’s actually getting out of them.
Even because it’s amping up its absurdity issue, Dream Situation’s wild twists all the time really feel like pretty affordable guesses about how the world would possibly reply if a rando began haunting our collective unconscious. It’s as unsettling as it’s disturbing — doubly so as a result of it’s nonetheless a comedy at its core — and that heady combine will possible depart you desirous to do nothing however discuss in regards to the movie after you’ve seen it.
Dream Situation additionally stars Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula, David Klein, Cara Volchoff, Noah Centineo, and Amber Midthunder. The movie is in theaters now.