Sophie, a teenage girl, has a dream in which a man is raking leaves by a swimming pool. As Sophie starts floating up to the sky, she cries for help from this man whom she calls Dad. Her father, Paul Matthews, is a professor of evolutionary biology at a local university.
When Paul learns a former colleague is writing an article on a topic he had discussed with her many years earlier, he seeks to confront her but instead begs her for some recognition. Paul's journalist ex-girlfriend, Claire, spots him with his wife, Janet, and tells him he appears in her dreams. With his permission, she writes an article about the experience. Soon, hundreds of strangers come forward to recognize Paul from their dreams. While Paul enjoys the media coverage this brings, he is frustrated by his depiction in the dreams as passive and uninteresting. In impromptu interviews with some of his students, Paul learns that in the dreams, oftentimes calamity occurs or the dreamers ask for help, but Paul is passive or emotionless and does not intervene.
Paul's wife, Janet, asks why he does not appear in her dreams. She describes her fantasy: Paul rescues her while wearing the oversized suit worn by David Byrne in the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense. Later that evening, a mentally ill man who has seen Paul in his dreams breaks into their house with a knife, raising concerns about the risks of his fame.
Paul meets with a public relations firm, hoping to get a book deal, but they attempt to convince him to advertise Sprite on social media. After a beautiful young assistant at the firm, Molly, tells him about her erotic dreams about him, he attempts to reenact them for her but suffers premature ejaculation and leaves, humiliated.
Paul is enraged to learn that the former colleague has published a high-profile paper on the subject he was thinking of writing his book about. His presence in people's dreams becomes violent and sadistic, and he becomes vilified. He is placed on leave after students refuse to attend his classes. Bystanders begin to notice Paul in public and are bothered by his presence, resulting in a brawl in a diner. After Janet's career is affected, she asks Paul to issue a public apology, but he angrily refuses.
After Paul has a nightmare in which he is hunted and killed by a version of himself wielding a crossbow, he releases a self-pitying apology video. Humiliated, Janet throws him out of the house. Paul forces his way into his daughter's school play, but accidentally injures a teacher in the process and is restrained. He becomes further vilified.
Sometime later, the dreams have stopped. Paul's dream experience led to the discovery of a shared subconsciousness, and dreams have become an advertising space through the use of technology. Janet is separated from Paul and is dating a co-worker. Paul travels to France for a book tour to promote his book Dream Scenario. He learns it has been retitled Je suis ton cauchemar ("I Am Your Nightmare") without his consent, that the book is pitifully thin in the translated volume, and that his signing event has been moved to the dingy basement of the bookstore. Nevertheless, fans line up for his signed copies. Paul uses dream-travel technology to attempt to enter one of Janet's dreams and rescue her while wearing the Byrne suit. As he floats away, much like how Sophie did in the very first dream, Paul declares that he wishes the dream were reality.
Dream Scenario premiered as the opening film in the Platform Prize program at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2023.[9][10][11]A24 distributed it in the United States with a limited release on November 10, 2023, followed by an expanded release on November 22.[12][5] Distribution in Canada, New Zealand and Australia was handled by VVS Films.[13]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 233 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Come to Dream Scenario for career-highlight work from Nicolas Cage—and leave mulling over everything it has to say about pop culture's fickle whims."[14]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[15]
Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal called the film "a bold statement that is bound to make a name" for Borgli.[16]Peter Bradshaw, in his review of the film in The Guardian, called it "very enjoyable" and a "smart film about the uncanny experience of fame."[17] Peter Debruge of Variety noted that "Borgli shoots the dreams no different from the waking moments, creating a kind of mind game for audiences, who must determine at any given moment whether the scene in question is real or imagined."[18]
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote that the film is "often funny and frequently surreal" but said that Borgli had "more ideas than space to execute them," leading to a third act that feels "overloaded and indecisive of where it wants to land." Catsoulis also wrote that the erotic scene between Paul and Molly "could make you want to put your eyes out."[19]
