Neurotic, married university professor Paul Matthews (Nicholas Cage) teaches evolutionary biology and has been planning to publish big paper about the swarm intelligence of ants for years when old friend Sheila snatches the topic and has a bestseller without even mentioning Paul. Paul is enraged, but he is so unable to assert himself, and he lets Sheila rip him off.

No one takes Paul seriously, no one seems to see him. Students whisper in Paul’s lectures. His daughter is moody because Paul appeared in one of her dreams and just looked on as she had a car accident. People begin to recognize Paul on the street: “Oh my God, you were on my dream.” Gradually it becomes clear that Paul has appeared in the dreams of many people. He becomes a media sensation, his ego starts to grow, he hopes to publish his not-yet-written ant book, finds a hip agency, and a young, pretty woman flirts with him before it goes in a very different direction.

In DREAM SCENARIO, Kristoffer Borgli succeeds in what he didn’t quite manage to do in his previous film SICK OF MYSELF, namely make more out of a very good idea than following a simple escalation logic. In DREAM SCENARIO, each of the many turns work, the dialogue is precise, and Nicholas Cage gives one of his best and multi-faceted performances in recent history – which he also says himself. Cage has made the experience of becoming an internet meme, which rapidly detaches from the real person. Borgli's media satire is not particularly toxic, but it is incredibly funny and precisely directed Comedy masterpieces are few and far between, but with DREAM SCENARIO, Borgli has made one.

Tom Dorow (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy