Dream scenario: A great Nicolas Cage in a film of his (dis)measure (critic)

Nicolas Cage plays a teacher who populates the dreams of others in this squeaky but a little too wise comedy from the director of Sick of Myself

Cage in cage. Or almost. His character – a teacher without much scope by the sweet name of Paul Matthews – soon realizes that almost everyone dreams of him. Suddenly he is the passive hero of the sleeping people. Because everyone agrees on one thing: in the collective unconscious, Matthews shines through his inaction. The man embodies neither a fantasy nor an anxiety, he is just a presence. This does not prevent it from going “viral” on social networks and attracting communicators ready to gorge on the beast. The film uses a metaphor formulated by the hero himself to his students, that of the zebra with streaked skin and therefore ultra-visible but which, among its peers, blends into a protective anonymity. This is the strength of the herd. Matthews therefore unwillingly becomes a solitary animal and consequently, prey. All this Kafkaesque rise in power with Cage superbly stripped for the occasion, culminates halfway through in an inevitable reversal of value. The man taking action upsets an order which had been precisely established on his passivity. From then on, the entire scenario becomes a metaphor for itself (each film is a waking dream) and threatens to bite its own tail, if not to get carried away. Film labeled A24 with Ari Aster producing and the spirit of Charlie Kaufman hovering between the lines. A genre in itself. The Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli, discovered barely six months ago with Sick of Myself, continues here to caricature our egocentric and overly connected world.

By Kristoffer Borgli. With Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera… Duration 1h41. Released December 27, 2023