| A24 | Release Date: November 10, 2023 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
39
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Nov 8, 2023
The film starts off akin to a tongue-in-cheek “Twilight Zone” episode, then becomes a meditation on fame before transforming into a scathing satire of several things at once: Gen Z, cancel culture, and even the people who complain about cancel culture. Written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, it’s bleak and funny and provides Cage with his most satisfying role since 1997’s “Face/Off.”
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Nov 14, 2023
Writer-director-editor Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario has one of the most ingenious setups of any movie of the 2020s and, even more remarkably, delivers on that premise for at least three-quarters of the story, before it falls just short of greatness in a final sequence of events that feels just slightly, slightly underwhelming.
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IndieWireSep 10, 2023
Dream Scenario is simply the best absurdist comedy of its kind since “Anomalisa” (the Kaufman connection being further cemented by a Cage performance that feels like it was born from superimposing both of his “Adaptation” characters on top of each other. …And also by a running joke about antkind).
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Nov 10, 2023
It all loses a bit of its circadian rhythm with a tacked-on sci-fi storyline involving social media ‘dreamfluencers’. But as a giddy showcase for a bang-on-form Cage, with some needle-sharp observations about fame in the 21st century, this Ari Aster-produced dark comedy is the best kind of cheese dream.
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Nov 8, 2023
For a while, the film seems unsure which direction to take. But a darker third act sees Paul’s benign personality begin to warp in people’s dreams, impacting his entire life. Meanwhile, echoing the work of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich in particular), Dream Scenario morphs into a wickedly funny satire on the pernicious nature of social media.
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The GuardianSep 10, 2023
Nov 10, 2023
If someone decides they don’t like you, there’s nothing you can do about it. If enough people share that opinion, they can absolutely destroy you. Combine that with an always-fantastic Cage, thoughtful and buffoonish in every gesture and tic, and it makes for a delightfully mixed bag.
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Movie NationNov 29, 2023
A screenplay that doesn’t add up to the sum of its parts, it’s a picture that stumbles along rather than progresses in any strictly linear sense. But that sometimes frustrating unconventionality — sometimes funny, often not — and the riveting presence of Nic Cage on center stage recommend it, in spite of everything else. Or maybe because of everything else.
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Nov 10, 2023
Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario starts off with a rich, surreal premise, and for much of its running time, it mixes playful, cringe-comic energy with an undercurrent of existential anxiety. But it eventually manages to undo much of what made it so tantalizing by turning metaphor and subtext into a more narrow-minded satire.
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Nov 9, 2023
The Film StageSep 27, 2023
There’s fertile ground in our current hypersensitive, extremely online culture that’s been used to create good satire in recent years. Borgli is happy to let that potential go to waste, taking broad swings and misses against a changing societal landscape without understanding his targets.
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