Dream State of affairs has some enjoyable with the collective unconscious, however it struggles to observe by on its pleasant premise.
Few faces have burned deeper into the collective unconscious than Nicolas Cage’s. As an uncommon however fascinating star of many blockbusters, and the centerpiece of limitless web memes, Cage has endured within the cultural zeitgeist in some kind or one other for a number of a long time, at the same time as his standing as an A-list actor has fluctuated. He’s the proper alternative to guide Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream State of affairs, a film wherein individuals all over the world begin to dream about the identical individual (performed by Cage), who floats by some surreal panorama like a bit of psychological detritus. In spite of everything, who amongst us hasn’t at one level or one other idly contemplated Nicolas Cage?
In Dream State of affairs, Cage isn’t any megastar. He’s a nebbishy biology professor named Paul Matthews, a balding chump who appears to mix into the background even when he’s at dwelling consuming dinner together with his spouse and youngsters. Clad in dishevelled slacks and a half-zip, he’s an alarming however amusing sight when he begins popping up in goals, strolling by and giving a sheepish wave whereas in any other case enjoying no function within the reverie. It’s an extremely compelling pitch for a film, a low-key sci-fi state of affairs with a metatextual twist. However Borgli takes it in a depressingly mundane course, squeezing a surreal fable into an all-too-contemporary tackle the strictures of movie star.
Given the weird peaks and valleys of his profession, Cage clearly understands the weird trappings of fame. That makes him Dream State of affairs’s largest asset, and he delivers a efficiency on par together with his current standout work in Pig and The Insufferable Weight of Huge Expertise. Paul first seems in his daughter’s dream, raking leaves and ignoring her as she’s pelted with mysterious hail. Because the story progresses, he learns that different individuals—outdated flames, buddies of buddies, lots of his college students, even complete strangers—are having related experiences. Footage of Paul’s face unfold on-line like an old-school viral sensation, a extra sensible model of the “This Man” meme that took off on the web years in the past.
It’s a scrumptious, fascinating notion, exploring not solely the concept of a shared unconscious but additionally the methods wherein the shared consciousness of being on-line would possibly warp and alter it. Paul’s preliminary visitor roles in goals really feel spontaneous, however the extra individuals hear about them, the extra he transforms from a nonthreatening background actor into an lively participant. At first, Paul hopes to leverage his fame towards publishing a long-gestating science ebook, however his dream-avatar quickly turns into extra horrifying, scaring and even attacking individuals as they sleep. In a matter of weeks, Paul goes from a cheerful fad to a global determine of hate, whereas arguing that he has nothing to do with what goes on in individuals’s heads.
Cage has a agency grasp on simply how cloyingly pathetic Paul will be, portraying his more and more sweaty desperation as he scrambles to regain his dream persona’s authentic cutesiness. Paul’s timid spouse, Janet (the always-strong Julianne Nicholson), rapidly acknowledges how ill-equipped he’s for any form of fame, however she’s not above utilizing their marriage to advance professionally. Michael Cera swoops in for a really humorous prolonged cameo as Trent, the top of a advertising and marketing agency referred to as Ideas? who imagines Paul as a unconscious pitchman who invades individuals’s goals whereas holding a Sprite can. In the meantime, Trent’s assistant, Molly (the splendidly sardonic Dylan Gelula), confesses that Paul is an irrepressible Lothario in her goals—one thing he struggles to match as much as in actual life.
These are all fitfully humorous instructions to take the premise in, however Borgli (a Norwegian director whose prior function Sick of Myself is an acidly humorous romp) can’t actually choose a mode. As an alternative, Dream State of affairs morphs from a Charlie Kaufman–esque cringe comedy right into a simmering nightmare thriller, staging some genuinely unsettling hallucinations however failing to knit them into any bigger narrative. Finally, Paul turns to the form of dark-web fame that many a “canceled” determine is drawn to, doing a ebook tour in France and attempting to money in on his personal notoriety—a narrative course that feels lazy and mundane. Cage is sufficient to hold Dream State of affairs fascinating, promoting Paul’s psychological unraveling with panache; he’s at all times been a performer who relishes dancing on the border between charismatic and unhinged, swinging between the 2 in a single line studying. However the film fails to match that deftness of tone, settling into bland, unimaginative normality—a disappointing flip for such a vibrant idea.
