‘Dream Situation’ overview: Nicolas Cage takes wild swings at cancel tradition

Nicolas Cage deserves higher.

After many years within the public eye, the American film star has develop into a polarizing determine. To some, he is without doubt one of the most uncompromising and compelling display screen actors alive immediately. (Hello, I am some.) To others, he is an over-the-top persona, outlined by gifs and memes of his eyes bugged out broad or his face cracking into an alarming smile.

His newest movie, Dream Situation, confronts the horror of this latter perspective, with Cage enjoying a person whose very face and identify are robbed from him by ravenous web tradition. Nevertheless, author/director Kristoffer Borgli undermines what may have been a thought-provoking path for his horror comedy to as a substitute take wild swings at “cancel tradition” — which don’t land. 

Whereas Cage provides his all to a singular and riveting efficiency, his director cannot create a movie worthy of him. Sadly, it is a sample these days. (See additionally such Cage choices as Sympathy For The Devil, Renfield, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the place he performed himself — twice.) 

What’s Dream Situation about? 

In Dream Situation, Cage stars as Paul Matthews, a professor in evolutionary biology and household man who goes from “outstanding no one” to “probably the most attention-grabbing particular person on this planet” — by means of no fault of his personal.  

The dynamic Cage of his many motion motion pictures (from Con Air to Face/Off, Kick-Ass to Mandy) is to not be discovered right here. His sharp jawline has been softened by a flat, greying beard. His pompadoured hair is shaved away to a yawning bald scalp. His daring style sense was deserted for bland button-downs, khakis, and pullover sweaters. His electrifying elocution softened into mumbles, self-aware chuckles, and the occasional panicked plea. This Nic Cage character is not simply uncool, he is the sort of man who may as effectively be invisible. That’s, till Paul begins turning up in different folks’s desires. His daughter, his college students, outdated colleagues, and even strangers — all of them see him pop in. Whereas surreal and nightmarish eventualities play out of their sleep, he’s there as a banal witness. 

At first, Paul is tickled by the eye this brings — even when it bothers him that nearly universally he is so passive in these desires that he may as effectively be a chunk of furnishings. However as his story spreads throughout the web — and increasingly subconsciouses — he loses any grasp on his personal narrative. His identification is not his personal, however a plaything to a world hungry for leisure and ever-ready for outrage. 

Nicolas Cage is on the high of his recreation, once more. 

The thrill inherent in seeing a Nicolas Cage film for the primary time is its unpredictability. Right here is an actor who doesn’t fear going too far or swinging too big. However because the earthy thriller Pig reminded us in 2021, Cage is able to nuance as effectively. As Paul, he shuffles as a substitute of swaggers. His shoulders hunch in an nearly fixed apology for present in any respect. He speaks — even in his lectures to college students — as if ever on the verge of retreat. Till he enters their desires. 

With this inexplicable scenario, Paul grows in confidence and in his sense of entitlement. Cage straightens his posture, strikes with extra conviction, and flirts with a extra commanding tone. However this can be a pose Paul cannot keep, and in that, there’s agonizing awkwardness…and fart jokes. And but, Paul would not come off just like the butt of a joke. I do not credit score that to Borgli’s script, as he appears to relish pushing his embattled protagonist by means of a barrage of indignities. However even enjoying embarrassed or ashamed, Cage is alive with a craving that urges us to root for Paul. 

The one echo of kooky Cage right here exists within the desires, the place Paul turns into a caricature of himself, alien and unnerving. In these sequences and past, Cage thrives regardless of Borgli’s lack of creativeness and stifling cynicism. 

Dream Situation misses the mark on its social criticism. 

Cage’s efficiency is fleshed out and alive, however Borgli’s world-building is vexingly weak. Whereas the web is claimed to be going wild over Paul, there’s little onscreen to showcase that. As a substitute, Borgli provides a derisive line about Twitter reactions (already relationship the movie in lieu of the X of it all) and pivoting to a douchey advertising and marketing workforce, who is raring to capitalize on Paul’s in a single day fame. Whereas Michael Cera and Kate Berlant are sharply amusing in these satirical roles, the opposite supporting characters vary from thinly drawn to caustically rendered. 

Paul has two daughters, who’re mainly outlined by being the one who desires about him and the one who would not. His college students are a gawping gaggle meant to mock Gen Z, as Paul goes on a tirade, dropping buzzwords like “trauma” and “lived expertise” with disdain as in the event that they have been slurs. “Cancel culture” will likewise pop up with all of the subtlety of a hammer blow to the pinnacle, deriding this idea as an unjust tradition struggle in opposition to helpless victims like poor Paul. 

Whereas the primary hour provides an intriguing premise, Borgli burns off prospects and curiosity along with his ghoulish plot developments that make for more and more wonky metaphors. By the third act, he is flinging in lazy criticisms of every thing from influencers to wellness tradition and tech bros. Dream Situation devolves right into a film the place Tucker Carlson and Barack Obama get name-dropped for affordable laughs. And as you may guess from each dated references, Dream Situation has nothing new — or all that deep — to carry to the conversations it wades into with smirking glee. 

For Nicolas Cage, Dream Situation was private.

Regardless of the movie’s gratingly off-the-rails third act, it is simple to see why it may need appealed to Cage. On one stage, Paul is a captivating function, as a result of he exists not solely in his rollercoaster arc of fame and misfortune, but additionally within the desires of others. This calls for an actor basically play out a number of variations of the identical character, tweaking to notion. Past the fun of this problem, at the Q&A following Dream Situation‘s world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, Cage mentioned how weird it’s to see himself, his face, and his life’s work, co-opted by a meme culture that flattens him right into a punchline. 

This appears like a nightmare to which Paul may relate. But Borgli undercuts Cage’s efficiency along with his tantrums of provocation and turning Paul’s story right into a strawman argument in opposition to so-called “cancel tradition.”

Whose fault is it that Paul is on everybody’s thoughts? The film will not reply. It would not actually appear to care. As a substitute, its setup turns into an impediment course to run its harried hero by means of — making us the gawking witness unable to assist. However relatively than relate to Paul’s impotence — and wallow in that stress — the viewers is inspired to giggle at him as he faces one humiliation after one other. Little by little, Borgli spoils the humor of the primary half with the lazy psychological pondering within the second.

In the long run, Dream Situation is much less humorous or horrifying than it’s callous and smug, delivering a conclusion that is sloppily cynical and easily unsatisfying. 

Dream Situation was reviewed out its world premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant; the film will open within the U.S. on Nov. 10.