Nicholas Cage keeps up his bizarre career streak of pinballing between high and low art. He works really well in this post-Ari Aster drama/comedy/sci-fi/fantasy/horror/....; basically it's this experimental, surrealist art piece that refuses to pigeonhole itself into a specific genre. It's surprisingly cohesive and comments on topics such as celebrity culture, image and how fame can make one lose perspective of the important things in life. Like _Beau is Afraid_, it's structured like an unpredictable rollercoaster ride that hits many different emotions along the way. I was really enjoying it, though it started to lose me a little bit towards the end because you could tell the filmmakers had a hard time wrapping up this story. The filmmaking also feels like it's coming from a director who's just starting out. The filmic look is quite nice (pay special attention towards the trees when Cage is walking outside), but too much of this is shot like basic coverage. There are also some questionable editing choices and the score that doesn't really fit the quirky, surrealist tone. Still, I'd recommend the end result to any A24 loyalist.

6.5/10

What a delight. Flipping genres on a dime and with a cautionary tale of modern virality and the destruction it brings to those hunted by it, Dream Scenario is a fantastic smorgasbord of ideas that really shouldn't come together as well as it does. Not many films can be funny, tragic and scary in equal measure and still come out feeling as complete as this movie does. Excellence, I can't wait to watch it again.

Very interesting premise, but they forgot to put any meaning in it.

Wow, that was weird. Looks and feels so bizarre and Nic Cage has the perfect face for the role. His acting was phenomenal too, I think one of his best performances.

Was legit scared I will dream of Nicolas Cage after watching this movie Enjoyed it!

OMG, I don't know where the "metascore" came from on this movie, it was terrible. No ending, no explanations for why he was showing up in dreams or why it stopped. It was painful, a waste of time.

*A Nightmare on Cage Street*

Directed by Kristoffer Borgli and produced by Ari Aster and it felt exactly like an Ari Aster movie... there's something we don't know here.

Anyways I really enjoyed this the whole way through. It's genre bending, just like an Ari Aster movie, from drama, to fantasy, to pure comedy to even horror. I felt such a wide range of emotions watching it, the first half was very funny and the second half had me frustrated and sad. Nicolas Cage was perfect for this character, so clever to use a famous actor like Cage to play a character that's in everyone's dreams—he did a great performance! The dream sequences looked stunning and quite imaginative. The ending was so poetic, it made me emotional.

What it's lacking is great cinematography, it isn't bad or anything but there's nothing special here. So a little bit of wasted potencial because of that but overall i'm ok with it not being overly stylish. Unpopular opinion but I like this better than Ari Aster's *Beau Is Afraid*.

Dream Scenario - :heart:x7

Weird and creepy. Cage's portrayal of the character's neuroticism is brilliant, creepy, and uncomfortable. It's worth a watch just to see Cage's performance.

How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!

I have no idea what I just watched.

A good film that just misses greatness is more disappointing than a bad film. Dream Scenario is outstanding until the last 20 minutes. It feels as though Kristoffer Borgli just couldn't figure out how to end it and ran out of time. Too bad. #BestNicolasCagePerformanceEver!

Great idea, poor execution. It's like they focused everything on the dreams part and forgot they were making a movie (with everything else this requires).

Neurotic, loser doormat gets punished the whole movie for being a neurotic loser doormat. But enough about BEAU IS AFRAID GUYS! I liked it!

Like a marriage: starts off fun but they don't know how to end it.

For some strange reason, a man shows up in everybody's dreams and no one knows why so they stop making the movie. Too bad, because even Nicolas Cage did all right in this one.

As with most A24 films unfortunately, an interesting premise that carries for the first hour, followed by 30 minutes of not knowing how to wrap it all up.

**Pros:** Nicholas Cage.
**Cons:** Unfocused.

The premise is great. The first half is interesting, quirky, new. But- all the ideas that are thrown in here, while extremely topical (sudden fame; subconscious influence onto others; cancel culture; herd mentality) are never explored deeply enough, and we are left exactly as Paul Matheson (the main character), wondering why all of this is happening.

It is almost as the movie didn't know which idea to explore, and left all of them just floating there. It's a "headline movie", very fitting for modern times where people don't have the focus to actually stop and think and go deeper. If that was made on purpose, kudos. The movie might've easily been a 7. It's the introduction, in the final 15 minutes, of a completely new concept that feels almost from another movie (and not in a good way) that throws a big wrench in the works, sticking the landing completely.

It's beautifully shot and directed, and with an incredible photography from Benjamin Loeb which avoids the pitfall of modern trends and gives it a classic look; the issue, for me, is in the writing.

One of the best of the year!! Only Sorsese's latest tops it atm.
I couldn't stop laughing through the ENTIRE thing and mostly I was the only one doing so in the cinema lol. Nicolas Cage might be my favourite actor.

I wish I would dream about Paul Matthews idling near me while I meet a grim fate.