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Dream Scenario
Hapless family man Paul Matthews finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
2023 · Directed by Kristoffer Borgli · 102 min · Comedy · Fantasy · Screenplay in the scene database · 23 frames
Tagline
Meet the man of your dreams.
Plot
Sophie, a teenage girl, has a dream in which she sees a man raking leaves by a swimming pool. She suddenly starts floating up to the sky and cries out to the man for help, revealing that he is her father Paul, a professor of evolutionary biology at a local university.
When Paul learns that 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 name Paul as the man they see in their dreams. Paul enjoys the media coverage this brings, but is frustrated by consistently being depicted in the dreams as passive and uninteresting. In interviews with some of his students, he learns that their dreams sometimes feature disasters occurring or the dreamers asking Paul for help, only for him to remain emotionless and unhelpful.
Janet asks Paul why he does not appear in her dreams, and describes her fantasy of Paul rescuing her while wearing the oversized suit worn by David Byrne in the 1984 Talking Heads 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 PR firm in the hopes of securing a book deal, but they instead attempt to convince him to advertise Sprite on social media. Molly, a young assistant at the firm, tells Paul that she has erotic dreams about him; he attempts to re-enact them for her, but prematurely ejaculates and leaves her apartment in shame.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Kristoffer Borgli
- Cinematography: Benjamin Loeb
- Edited by: Kristoffer Borgli
- Music: Owen Pallett
- Production design: Zosia Mackenzie
- Produced by: Lars Knudsen, Tyler Campellone, Jacob Jaffke, Ari Aster
Cast
- Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews
- Julianne Nicholson as Janet Matthews
- Michael Cera as Trent
- Tim Meadows as Brett
- Dylan Gelula as Molly
- Lily Bird as Sophie Matthews
- Jessica Clement as Hannah Matthews
- Dylan Baker as Richard
- Kate Berlant as Mary
- Star Slade as Greta
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, French
- Studios: A24, Square Peg, Saturn Films
- Budget: $10,000,000
- Box office: $14,114,415
- Themes: dreams, nightmare, professor, sleep, subconsciousness, dark comedy, satire, family relationships, shared dream, psychological
More by Kristoffer Borgli
On this film
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