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Nicolas Cage in bizarre tragicomedy “Dream Scenario”
In “Dream Scenario” Nicolas Cage plays a family man who becomes famous overnight. photo
© —/DCM Film/dpa
Nicolas Cage, this wonder box of an actor, has rarely been more at the top of his game than in this evil, but always lovingly staged media satire.
The big birthday wasn’t that long ago: at the beginning of January the acting chameleon became Nicolas Cage 60. The mime, who belongs to a kind of Hollywood family, has over 100 film appearances in his portfolio. Now the Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli shows us the eccentric workaholic Cage as a cranky university teacher who suddenly appears in the dreams of those around him.
Cage is best known among film fans for memorable performances in films such as “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995), “Moonstruck” (1987), “Bad Lieutenant” (director: Werner Herzog) and “In the Body of the Enemy” (John Woo). . His father was the brother of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”), director Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”) is Cage’s cousin.
Acting Chameleon Cage
Cage’s acting is difficult to categorize. The Hollywood star repeatedly takes the liberty of creating completely strange characters: in “Pig” (2021), for example, he plays a hermit who lives with a truffle pig.
In “Dream Scenario” (release date: March 21st) Cage takes on the role of an evolutionary biologist. Paul Matthews has been teaching at a US college for years and leads a not bad, but rather staid, unvaried life. It starts with your own daughter: She keeps dreaming about her dad, who in these dreams always presents himself as a passive spectator: No matter what happens, Paul just stands there, motionless. Soon he wonders to himself: “Why do I always just stand around?”
Bio professor becomes a media star
And then Paul appears in the dreams of complete strangers, who even ask him on the street if they know each other from somewhere. Not only does Paul’s former girlfriend report strange dream encounters, he now also regularly plays a role in the dreams of his students. Paul becomes a media celebrity. And finally haunted by himself in his dreams: a dark version of himself that hunts him with a crossbow.
“Dream Scenario”, a comedy that skilfully switches between real and dreamed scenes, is sometimes reminiscent of media satires like “The Truman Show”, but sometimes also of famous TV productions like “Breaking Bad”. While in “Breaking Bad” a chemistry teacher mutates into a drug lord, here a staid biology professor becomes a media star. Paul initially puts up with this metamorphosis – even his teenage daughters suddenly find him (almost) cool.
But gradually the increasingly overwhelmed university professor becomes more and more unsure of the trip he is on: Not only is Paul recognized on every corner and no longer has peace in any restaurant – reports are gradually increasing that Paul is in his dreams He does increasingly cruel things to his fellow human beings: he smashes the skull of one of his students.
Media satire or horror piece?
What is now happening to Paul is often discussed not only in the USA, but also in Europe under the controversial term “cancel culture”: Paul is shunned, even publicly ostracized, and he is no longer even allowed to go to his daughter’s theater evening. Yet, he once desperately states, he can’t really help it that everyone in the world is dreaming of him: “Those are their dreams!” Director Borgli does not find a clear stance on the topic of “cancel culture” (sometimes described in Germany as “ban culture”). “Dream Scenario” is not a political film. What’s happening is far too bizarre for that. Lead actor Cage has said in interviews that he read the film’s script more as an analysis of how to deal with fame.
But no matter whether you read this film as a media satire, as a bizarre horror piece (with some scary scenes), as a surreal comedy with a serious undertone, as a grotesque or even as a warning look into the future: “Dream Scenario” makes you think and empathize and to marvel at.
Impressive performance from Cage
But especially to be amazed at a Nicolas Cage, who is always good for surprises. His playing is extremely honest and touchingly humane. Cage sometimes brings laughter and sometimes completely different tears to your eyes. In some moments one has to think of perhaps Cage’s most impressive performance: the film for which the American received his only Oscar to date, “Leaving Las Vegas”.
His biology professor isn’t quite as deranged as he was in 1995, when Cage’s character gave himself up to alcohol in Las Vegas. But the fragile humanity of both characters is similar. And nowhere in such good hands as with the exceptional mime.