Quick critiques — ‘Dream Scenario,’ ‘Godzilla,’ ‘May December’
Some of us dream about Nicolas Cage without any supernatural intervention.
In “Dream Scenario,” however, Cage is playing a mild-mannered, mostly-boring college professor who suddenly starts appearing in everybody’s dreams. As in EVERYBODY in the world.
It starts benign — Cage’s Paul Matthews mostly just walks through the dream doing nothing. Nevertheless, Paul becomes a worldwide celebrity and also begins enjoying the attention.
Then the dreams start becoming nightmares, and Paul, innocent of actual crimes, becomes a presumed predator in the real world.
The comedy-turned-almost-horror movie is the first stateside project written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli. The tone very much mimics something like “Adaptation,” the acclaimed Cage collaboration with Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. “Dream Scenario” doesn’t quite land its third act quite like “Adaptation” (an admittedly lofty bar), but it finds humor and emotional resonance exploring the uncontrollable nature of (mild) celebrity and all the social pressure that comes when it’s abruptly taken away.
It's yet another understated-but-dynamic performance by Cage, who continues to take advantage of every juicy role offered to him.
“Dream Scenario” is currently in theaters.
‘May December’
Critics love Todd Haynes, the filmmaker behind “Carol,” “Velvet Goldmine” and “Far From Heaven.” You should probably love him too. Another good reason: The superb, devilishly campy “May December,” now available on Netflix.
It stars Natalie Portman as a famous actress researching her latest role by entrenching herself in the subject’s life. Gracie (played with the usual level of brilliance by Julianne Moore) was once a tabloid magnet who served jail time for sleeping with a 13-year-old boy (think the Mary Kay Letoruneau case). Years later, Gracie is now married to her victim, Joe (Charles Melton), and the couple are about to send their twin children off to college. The actress begins to stir the tension (purposefully or unintentionally?) between the couple, leading to some major awkwardness, of both the hilarious and devastating variety.
Haynes working from a screenplay by Samy Burch, leans into the melodrama, complete with intentionally overdramatic music queues that will make Tommy Wiseau feel vindicated for his choices in “The Room.” “May December” is wickedly funny without making a joke of the trauma that lurks between the characters. Moore and Portman are incredible, especially in scenes together, and Melton, an actor mostly known for his TV work on things like The CW’s “Riverdale,” should be in serious Oscar contention as he slowly unpeels Joe’s pain and disenchantment.
Netflix releases a bunch of new movies on a regular basis, most of them entirely forgettable. “May December” sits on top of the pile and is one of the wittiest and most composed visions of any film this year.
‘Godzilla Minus One’
Forget that flashy, CGI-overloaded new trailer for the American “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (releasing next year). The true King of the Monsters appears in “Godzilla Minus One,” the latest Japanese entry in the iconic franchise that crams more spectacle into its $15 million budget than almost any movie this year featuring a superhero.
Making a good “Godzilla” movie is difficult, though it can be accomplished in two ways: One, currently the strategy of the recent American movies, is to lean into the silly monster mayhem. The other way is to make Godzilla deadly serious and attempt a human-centered story that uses the monster for thematic exploration, as was the model in the 1954 original.
“Minus One” succeeds in that second category, crafting a genuinely involving human drama around a former kamikaze pilot post-World War II whose wartime trauma is intrinsically linked to Godzilla’s reign of terror. Setting the film in the '40s is just one of writer/director Takashi Yamazaki’s wise decisions in crafting what turns out to be an intense riff on both the “Godzilla” and “Jaws” models of storytelling.
The Godzilla in “Minus One” is a terrifying figure, and while the movie offers occasional levity (and some admittedly melodramatic dialogue), the film thrives when the beast is treated like a legitimate threat to culture and civilization. “Minus One” is about as big and satisfying as blockbusters get… all accomplished on the budget of about five minutes of that latest “Indiana Jones” movie. Long live the King.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.