Dream Scenario (2023)
March 17, 2024 6:55 AM - Subscribe
A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.
When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
A dark comedic satire of social media, viral celebrity, cancel culture, and stubborn self-righteousness.
When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
A dark comedic satire of social media, viral celebrity, cancel culture, and stubborn self-righteousness.
I really liked the first two acts, but thought it sort of lost it at the end as it veered further into satire.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 5:18 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]
posted by Ishbadiddle at 5:18 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]
Dollar store Beau Is Afraid. (And I didn’t like Beau Is Afraid.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:13 PM on March 21
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:13 PM on March 21
i liked this, despite it being fairly depressing. it felt like they were trying to say something about cancel culture that pretty much missed the mark (people being canceled often did something intentional and deliberate and horrible to get themselves there). maybe they were saying something about having a rich inner emotional life. maybe Nicholas Cage was commenting on his renewed fame for being Nicholas Cage and on fame in general (appearing in people's inner lives though his various movies). maybe it was commentary on social media. maybe it was all/none of the above.
posted by kokaku at 2:07 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
posted by kokaku at 2:07 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]
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Nicolas Cage really goes hard into playing against type and does an admirable job of disappearing into his character here, I think.
A lot of reviews seem to characterize this film as simply about cancel culture, but I think it's about social media and the double-edged sword of going viral in general. The film also does a nice job of presenting a multi-layered narrative, where both Paul and the people subjected to Dream-Paul in their nightmares can be regarded sympathetically, but not unquestioningly so. I'm curious as to how other people took this.
Speaking of Paul and Dream-Paul ...
I also want to commend the film for making our POV character both sympathetic and very clearly flawed from the beginning, and subtly paralleling his emotional shifts with the nature of his dream appearances (his "public persona", in a sense).
Regarding a certain joke ...
The dreamfluencers are a great touch. So crass, so ridiculous, and so inevitable once capitalism gets its grubby little hands on technologies of human connection.
posted by skoosh at 7:19 AM on March 17