"Why me? I don't know, I'm special, I guess."

Indie label A24 is now a brand unto itself, helping to make films with sometimes outrageous premises appeal to mainstream audiences. They are turning indie cinema into a hip, cool thing again, like in the early 90s Miramax days (god help us). Moviegoers are now savvy enough to see the A24 logo before a trailer and identify the film as something off-kilter and quirky.

One of their most prominent in-house talents is writer, director, and producer Ari Aster, who earlier this year wrestled with a similar predicament of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances with Beau is Afraid. His name is listed as a producer on Dream Scenario, and that will certainly alert hip audiences to the fact that this is going to be something painfully awkward to watch. And at moments in this film, one may literally want to crawl out of one's skin and leave the theater it's so excruciatingly awkward.

This awkwardness is the stock in trade for writer and director Kristoffer Borgli, whose recent film Sick of Myself takes an almost manic glee in making its main characters unlikable. His latest film, Dream Scenario, isn't quite as confrontational and intentionally off-putting. But it does contain all of his preoccupations with the veneer of fame and what it can do to a regular person, let alone one of his wacky protagonists.

Nicolas Cage stars as Paul Matthews, a college professor and anonymous nobody who begins turning up in people's dreams. At first, it's people he knows like his younger daughter Sophie (Lily Bird), one of his students (Star Slade), and an ex-girlfriend (Marnie McPhail), but then he begins appearing in the dreams of strangers. He never does anything in the dreams, always appearing passive in the midst of chaos, and it propels him to a bizarre level of celebrity that he embraces wholeheartedly, despite the reservations of his wife Janet, played by a spectacular Julianne Nicholson.

As an actor, the joy of Nicolas Cage is when a director lets him off the leash, so to speak. Not to necessarily devour the scenery, but to take unusual risks like his Gumby voice in Peggy Sue Got Married or what would have been his wild samurai-esque take on Superman. That Cage can convincingly play an ordinary anonymous schmo after having reached the level of Oscar winning box office superstar is a testament to the fact that he's still got his fastball.

He is a delight in this film and is clearly delighted to be able to play someone that goes from no one having ever noticed him to everyone in the world recognizing him. Cage is game for anything and Borgli is overjoyed to pile on the humiliation while also never letting him hit rock bottom. It's a match made in heaven in terms of director and star, and as an audience member, it's often terrible to be on Paul's side because the hits keep coming.

As a commentary on the whole notion of cancel culture, it takes an interesting angle on the situation. Audiences will surely debate whether Paul brings these things on himself by desiring fame in the first place, or do things go south once he begins using that fame to try and get things that he wants, like a book deal? The film isn't all that interested in answering these questions as it is in doling out cosmic karma and letting the audience decide for themselves why Paul is made to endure such Job-like trials.

Much like Beau is Afraid, the film delights in painting itself into an ever shrinking corner, and just like that film, this one fails to make a clean escape. Dream Scenario ends on a note that some audience members will read as optimistic and others, like myself, will see it as pitch black. In fact, the film's entire third act is a leap that most audiences will not be able to take, and it will genuinely ruin it for some.

However, even if the film's reach doesn't exceed its grasp, it's still an ambitious film with perhaps the funniest fart joke in the history of cinema, and I guess I'll leave it to you, gentle reader, to decide whether or not that's something to celebrate. For my money, it's every bit as squirm-inducing, gut-churning, and often hilariously funny as I hoped it would be, it just doesn't quite stick the landing. But the destination, however anti-climactic one may find it, is certainly worth the journey.