Fingers crossed, but it looks like the Nicagissance we were talking about a while back may actually be in progress. It would, I think we can agree, be a travesty if someone as extravagantly talented as Nicolas Cage spent the rest of his career in DTDVD (to be honest, I suspect Direct To Streaming is more likely these days) tosh, so it is good to see him reoccupying a position closer to the mainstream, with cameo and supporting appearances in big movies and a proper, starring, acting role in Kristoffer Borgli's Dream Scenario.

If you have been following movies for the last few years, the fact that Dream Scenario is produced by Ari Aster may tip you off to the fact that this film is still sort of on the outskirts of commercial cinema. It's not quite a full-on horror film, though there are certainly unsettling moments, a general sense of unease, and some occasionally graphic violence – it has more of the atmosphere of Beau is Afraid, where after a while the realisation that you had literally no idea what was going to happen next at any point became genuinely disturbing.

Dream Scenario starts off feeling like a droll comedy-drama, with Cage playing Paul Matthews, an obscure but reasonably happy university professor. He has a nice life but is clearly chafing at his perceived lack of success – he has spent years thinking about writing a book about the emergent nature of intelligent behaviour in invertebrate colonies without doing anything about it. But then strangers start doing a double-take when they see him in the street, and a couple of acquaintances go on to report that he has been turning up in their dreams – not doing anything in particular, just ambling around in the background looking at the dreamer. It soon becomes apparent that this is not an isolated phenomenon: he is popping up in the dreams of vast numbers of people, all over the world. Paul is a bit stung by the fact that his dream-self is apparently such an ineffectual figure, but it quickly becomes clear he is quietly loving the peculiar celebrity that this odd phenomenon is bringing him. Inevitably, he goes viral and soon becomes the subject of news stories.

As people do these days, Paul decides to try and capitalise on his fame, meeting up with a preposterous group of young marketers led by Michael Cena. His plan is to somehow land a deal for his book about insect behaviour; their suggestion is a marketing deal for a well-known soft drink, which produces a degree of bristling from the professor. However, it is as if this attempt to exploit this odd power causes it to shift from being innocuous to becoming an actual curse. Encountering someone whose dreams of Paul are somewhat intimate results in a waking sex scene which is excruciatingly awkward to watch, and this is just the start – the dreams, and the world at large's opinions about Paul, grow increasingly darker and more hostile. . .

'You're in for a treat,' announced the ticketeer at the cinema when I turned up for Dream Scenario, which was pleasant and also a good sign (at least, I assume he wouldn't have said the same thing if I'd asked for a ticket for Trolls World Tour). I must confess the place is growing on me, by the way: there seems to be a genuine divide opening up between the old Odeon sweetshop, which is practically falling down as it approaches closure (next September, by all accounts), and devotes most of its screens to lowest common denominator commercial releases, and the Curzon on the roof of the mausoleum of shopping just up the street, which still seems to be in good nick and isn't afraid to cast the net a bit wider: you find subtitled releases there fairly regularly and it's seldom dominated by the same two or three films in every screen. I just hope it can hang in there.

Well, Dream Scenario is indeed a bit of a treat, being a clever, funny, somewhat thought-provoking film that treats the audience as intelligent adults. It doesn't feel the need to come up with even a bafflegab explanation for what's happening, although – apart from just conceivably forming an unofficial prequel to Inception – it sort of reminded me of Perforce to Dream, a John Wyndham story from 1954. You can see why it would appeal to Cage, who also produces – the film is somewhat off-kilter, but requires more from him than just the usual raving and nostril-flaring. In the end he delivers a terrific performance – Paul is an outwardly amiable, intelligent guy, but it soon becomes apparent he is driven by a desperate need to justify his life and somehow find significance – he is invariably prickly when challenged about anything at all, sensitive about his status and academic credentials. He's a believable human being despite being played by Cage in his authentic nouveau-shamanic manner – it's a lovely reminder of Cage's Oscar-winning form in years gone by.

For the first half of the film it seems content to be a deadpan, oddball combination of character study and the kind of obscure fantasy that the director seems to be inviting you to find your own interpretation for. However, the spectre of allegory rears its not entirely welcome head in the latter stages of the film – the poor behaviour of Paul's oneiric alter ego (this is where the horror element of the story comes in), which is entirely beyond his control, results in regrettable consequences for him, The nature of the film is such that you never feel completely sorry for his increasingly grim plight, but you do feel some sympathy. As a result Dream Scenario ends up feeling rather like an alternate universe version of Tar, as scripted by Charlie Kaufman.

For some people this alone will make it an enticing proposition, but in terms of it actually achieving anything... I don't know. Cancel culture, which is what the film ends up being about, is one of those things where there isn't really a middle ground where people can meet for an actual discussion of the pros and cons of the issue. It's either a moral obligation – practically an imperative – or a moral outrage. The film isn't likely to change anybody's mind, and the pro-cancellation lobby will probably accuse it of putting up a straw man, as everyone who does get cancelled really deserves it. (The comforts of absolute certainty, or do I mean faith?) Nevertheless, this is a well-made, highly original and entertaining film built around a brilliant central performance.

Also Showing

...Nia DaCosta's The Marvels, a sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel, but also the streaming shows WandaVision, and Ms Marvel, with some story elements connected to Hawkeye, Secret Invasion, Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men films. It's not surprising that it probably won't make complete sense if you haven't seen most of the foregoing, but what is perhaps slightly unexpected is how little sense it makes even if you have.

The lore overload is probably a problem, but less immediately obvious than the tonal mismatch between the emotional arc of the film – about failure, disappointment, and regret – and the gratingly wacky humour which regularly punctuates the film, presumably to make it more of a fun time for everyone. It's not completely without merit; Iman Vellani (as Ms Marvel) gives a winning performance, the action is well-mounted, and there are signs that Marvel haven't completely lost the plot – but their plan to take some time off and think about what they do next sounds like a sensible one to me.

Awix

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