181 - Dream Scenario

Dallas and Lee review 'Dream Scenrario' which stars Nicholas Cage as a hapless family man who finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the nerd Party. Onetwo Nick is coming for you. Three
four bitter lock your door, fivesix, Grab a crucifix seven eight,
Better stay up late. Nine tenYou'll never sleep again. Hello, and

(00:27):
welcome to the A twenty four project. Here on the Nerd Party, the
only podcast. It takes you throughthe entire back cat log of A twenty
four, reviews the latest releases,and brings you interviews with the people behind
these movies. I'm your co hostas King, and with me as always
the dream sonariw for this podcast tobe fat is the Donald Kaufman to my
Charlie Kaufman, It's Lee Hutchinson.How are you? Yeah, I'm really

(00:49):
good. I'm really excited to talkabout this one. I think this is
our last A twenty four film thatwe get to maybe talk about this year
unless sort of things start dropping inthe UK. But yeah, I'm really
excited to talk about this one.A real highlight. Yeah. So on
today's show, we are going tobe doing at Christopher Borgley's dream scenario,
which results in the dream scenario ofright and Wrong in that we've been doing

(01:15):
this podcast a long time and havereviewed pretty much one hundred and forty eight
film releases that have been released byeight twenty four, and so far,
none of them have starred Nicholas Cage. Now, given the fact that he's
a man who seems at times tohardly ever say no to a movie,

(01:36):
it just seems very odd that it'staken this long for the path to cross.
But I guess you're excited to finallybe able to talk about Nick Cage
on the twenty four podcast what turnsout to be one of his better performances.
Absolutely, yeah, I think there'sone of those ones that it's one
of the most annoying turns of phraseswhere people talk about like eight twenty four

(01:57):
vibes and like Pig, you knowthat could have been an A twenty four
film. I mean, like Neonpretty much parallel to A twenty four in
terms of how kind of quite selectivethey are with their filmography, et cetera.
And then I think there was somany people that like, as soon
as they saw that unbearable weight ofmassive talent, going, oh, that's
definitely got a twenty four vibes,which I must admit, I know it

(02:17):
was a loved film by by alot of people that were really known at
I really didn't enjoy that film whatsoever, and I was kind of, yeah,
I think that one certainly seemed tohave flopp didn't it. Yeah,
I did enjoy that one, butI wouldn't have classified it as A twenty
four vibes No, I think abit too meta for A twenty four.

(02:37):
But before we dive into the filmtimes A twenty four News Now, if
anyone listened to the previous episode,we were talking about the future of A
twenty four given the potential move intoIP content. You know, how are
they going to navigate the next coupleof years moving forward, especially in the
world of streaming, And you know, we were discussing, you know,

(02:59):
how is twenty four we're going tobe able to compete with something like Apple
or Paramount Plus or something like that. Turns out we got the answer today.
Actually, a couple of hours justbefore the podcast dropped in, they
launched the very own A twenty fourapp, which, unfortunately for you listeners
outside of the US, is onlyavailable in the US for reasons which we

(03:23):
discussed last week, in the factthat A twenty four are an American only
distributor, dipping the toe in thewater of the UK, of course,
but internationally all those films are releasedby different distributors. So the A twenty
four app gives you exclusive behind thescenes content and videos on all of their
releases, but also the opportunity,all within one app, to be able

(03:43):
to download, rent, or purchaseA twenty four films in America. So,
Lee, you would have got thesame email that I did as an
AAA twenty four member. What didyou make of this news dropping conveniently almost
actually prior to our podcast recording fora change. Yeah, I think we
saw it obviously when they sort oftrialed a bit of this app with it's

(04:05):
got behind the scenes clips, etcetera. I think they were giving it
kind of a soft launch a fewweeks and months ago. I remember trying
to download and it was like,can do it through any sort of kind
of the UK platforms or anything likethat, You would have to go America.
And it's it's one of those ones, I think again sort of telling
as we've kind of said all alongthat unfortunately A twenty four, as we

(04:29):
need to reminded our American distributor andall of anything that's A twenty four that's
being released in the UK. It'svery rarely a twenty four. I think
we've still only maybe on three filmsat most at the moment, and then
the rest are maybe universal or they'vegot all their rights kind of banged up.
And while this might be the closestsomeone's going to get to an A
twenty four streaming app, the ideathat something like that could exist in the

(04:53):
UK and beyond is just never goingto happen. No, unless a twenty
I guess, becomes so successful thatthey move full time into the UK and
then buy back the rights to allthose films, which I can't see them
doing anytime soon. Or that's allbecause I think it'd be far too complicated

(05:14):
and far too expensive. And nowI think, yeah, you saw actually
fully enough with Warner Brothers this weekwhere I think actually just a few hours
ago they were talking about how actuallyyou know that we've got our HBO Max
sorry, we've got the Max streamingservice. But what we're going to do
is we're actually just going to lookat maybe selling content and so on,
which we kind of spoke about afew times that that is the best option

(05:36):
for people like the cost that Atwenty four would invest in their own streaming
app is streaming platform and having toget subscribers, et cetera would be crazy.
Even like you see as you talkabout buying back the rights. For
example, you've seen so many folklike kind of Peacock in America, like
Universal buying back shows that they soldyears ago, or Paramount going, Actually,

(05:59):
we want all the star Trek underour banner, so we're going to
buy back the rights. The amountof money people spend and they're not making
any money off the back of it, the best way to go is just
make your content, sell it,distribute it like that is the safest way
to not go bankrupt. In atwenty four, probably made the best best
decision of just going here's a websitewhere you can basically just read stuff.

(06:20):
Keep it nice and simple, exactly. Yeah, It's like, why give
someone else the money when we canget money coming to us. Why get
them to go pay for it throughiTunes when they can pay for through the
app. But I'm just wondering,double check that all the films are there.
Oh yeah, Under the Silver Lakeis still you know, the film
which they didn't really give much ofrelease in cinemas, is still at least

(06:44):
available Under the A twenty four upthere. So yes, if you've been
you know, piqued by the workof David Robert Mitchell with the announcement that
he's returning to it follows universe withthey follow make sure to check out is
you know five star banger that you'vefilmed in between Under the Silvera. But
back to new releases and Dream Scenario, a film where the plot revolves around

(07:09):
a hapless family man and tenured professorwho finds himself turned into an overnight celebrity
when he begins appearing in people's dreamsand at exponential rate. At first,
disappearances are passive and banal, butwhen the dreams start to take on a
nightmarish turn, Paul is unable todeal with the victriholic fallout of a situation
beyond his control. So we wereyou excited to see this one? A

(07:34):
little bit? Yeah, a littlebit, just a little bit. Yeah,
It's one of those ones I feellike I've mentioned this time and again
where I try and avoid these trailerssometimes where I can, I mean still
don't watch that Zone of Interest traileryet in the pastime and in the past
few weeks, it feels like Saltburnand dream Scenario have been dominating my local

(07:55):
cinema for trailers, like I canconfirm it's the same at my I managed
to avoid it for weeks of likethey were online, but I was like,
you know what, I want tobe surprised by this Saltburn, so
I've finally seen that tonight. Thesame with Dreams Scenario. I knew Nicholas
Cage appears in Dreams find enough forme watching the trailer a few times,
it was kind of like, yeah, this looks fine. You know what,

(08:18):
It's probably gonna be another one ofthese kind of maybe slightly self aware
Nicholas Cage style movies. You know, he's not maybe had the best run
really since kind of peg. Imean, and everyone see that ren Field
for example. I as mentioned Ithought The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was
an atrocious film and it was sodifficult to sit through that. So I
kind of went into this on Saturdaynight off the back of a double bill

(08:41):
of The Royal Hotel, the newKatie Green film, and yeah, I
kind of sat down and within afew kind of minutes I was like,
I think this is such an enjoyablefilm, and it was one of these
films where a rare Saturday night thatI went to the cinema and I had
a really good time with the film, Like it's just so easy to watch,

(09:03):
fun to talk about afterwards, Ithas great audience reaction kind of moments
and so on, a really originalpiece of sort of accessible cinema that you
could imagine family is going along maybeto see or others and so on.
I think it was a real success, and I hope I think it's one

(09:24):
of those ones we talked recently aboutA twenty four. Maybe they lose films
on crazy budgets like bo Is Afraid? Will you watch something like this and
go? I can imagine this beinghaving an okay amount of budget, but
I think it could make this back. I think this will get in audiences
that didn't necessarily turn up for somethinglike bos Afraid. Yeah, I mean
I was looking forward to this onebecause you know a number of reasons.

(09:48):
Obviously, you know Nick Cajun andA twenty four. Finally, the concepts
sounded interesting, but I think themain draw for me was actually the fact
that it's directed by just For Bogley. Interesting fact. Going to IMDb and
the news articles when the film wasfirst muted, apparently it was potentially going
to be directed by Arie Astor,but eventually I think he moved away to

(10:13):
work on Bose Afraid when he metChristopher Borgley, who directed a fantastic film
from last year called Sick of Myself. Now, Lee, I know you
haven't seen this, but I'm goingto recommend it very very high. Oh
god, yeah, I'm really keento see it. Yeah. So it's
about a woman who is I mean, I would have actually titled this film

(10:35):
the Worst Woman in the World ratherthan the other film called the Worst Woman
in the World, because she's soself obsessed to the point where her boyfriend
is an artist and he starts toget quite famous, and so in order
to get attention back on herself,she actually gives herself a horrendous skin condition

(10:56):
in order to gain sympathy from herboyfriend and from people in the press,
social media, and you know,in a typical you know, if this
was an American film, she wouldlearn the errors of her ways and you
know, it would all become youknow, quite happy. In the final
actor she learns and grows as acharacter. That film doesn't do that.

(11:18):
It doubles down on just how awfulshe is, and it's just one of
the blackest, darkest comedies I've seenin a long time, and it was
just fantastic. So I was veryexcited to see what he was going to
do with this material because it couldgo in many, many sort of different
ways, and I mean, I'mreally sort of please with sort of how
it goes in here as well.So I mean, like we said,

(11:41):
the plot is, you know,Nick Cage is a man who just randomly
starts appearing in people's dreams. Oneof the plus points of major plus points
of this film, I think,is it doesn't explain why or how.
It's just this is something that happens. Just go with it. But he
sort of thrust into this position,which you know, but gruttually it sort
of accepts at the beginning, soit becomes a bit of a minor celebrity,

(12:05):
you know, good things can happenfor him, and then it all
sort turns quite vicious and sad quitequickly, because you know, that's what
we do in society with celebrities,and we like to build people up,
especially with reality TV and all that, we build people up and then quite
quickly, we're ready to tear themdown in terms of shreds because they've done
something which is upset us. Andhere is the fact that he's just appearing

(12:28):
in the dreams, just sort ofstanding there giving a little wave or something.
But then later on he starts actuallyattacking people in their dreams and stuff
like that. So, I mean, lee hypothetical, I'm going to put
it to you. If you startedappearing people's dreams and people started coming up
to you and going, what thehell, why are you in my dream?
How do you think you would handleit? It's hard to imagine.

(12:48):
I'm someone that I do like myprivacy. I don't like to be like
I find just you know, Ithink of like work events where people are
networking or coming up to you andwanting to talk about things. You're like,
oh, Hi, nice to meetyou, blah blah blah. You're
just kind of like, I'd ratherjust be with people I like, doing
things I like, or just leftcompletely alone and so on. And Yeah,

(13:09):
it's an interesting thing to imagine becauseI suppose the reality is he is
the everyman toon extent, you know, for a lot of us were we're
good at what we do we getby, but there's never that notoriety or
fame that kind of goes with itwhere we get recognized. And you know,
you can imagine for all of usat all points of our life,
whether you're someone that does a youknow, a critic, or you know

(13:33):
you have an hobby or an interest, you want someone to go, oh
wow, who is that person?Oh wow, you're brilliant at that,
even if it's just for a coupleof days and stuff. Because I suppose
we just have this idea that it'sa great feeling, you know, this
dopamine hit, whereas probably the realityyou see it when you hear celebrities interviewed
is it's much more monotonous, it'stedious, etc. But for all of

(13:56):
us, we probably just wish wehad that little even just that little taste
of it once in our life.And I can imagine for for someone like
Paul could be keen to give thatgo. He's very much that background kind
of person. Yeah, and Imean it's I mean, it's something that
you could potentially have quite quickly onsay something like Twitter or x the social

(14:18):
media platform formerly known as Twitter,where if you have a particularly hot take
on something you could get a lotof people praising you, but very quite
quickly you will also find people comingin at you, telling you why you're
incredibly wrong and hating on you aswell, and stuff like that. Isn't
it really where you see it withthis rise of the stupid blue texts where

(14:39):
me and have a friend talked aboutit, it's very much that scarlet letter.
Anytime I see someone that has paidfor that blue ticket is the most
ass and nine comments. And you'llsee people that will have genuine things as
you say something lovely to say abouta film or an experience, and there
are these top replies underneath, justsaying the most racist, horrible, miss

(15:00):
informed, the kind of stuff,and you're like, that's Joe public,
isn't it. Yes, And I'msure Joe Public will be out in full
force this weekend with the release ofThe Marvels starring Brie Larson, who,
for some reason, men in theirthirties who live in their bedrooms in America
seem to hate with a passion.So yes, I'm sure they will be

(15:20):
out telling everyone while why their opinionof The Marvels is wrong, even though
they have not gone to watch theMarvels. And therefore don't really have a
foot stand up. But anyway,you mentioned the everyman there. This character
is just a nobody and every man. So the fact that they cast Nick
Cage in the role is quite somethingbecause he is at times got quite larger

(15:43):
than life sort of personality. Whatdid you make of his performance? Is
it, you know, sort ofadaptation wild at heart sort of levels,
or is it the sort of NickCage who has appeared on so many many
directed DVD films. It's it's oneof these ones. I put it in
the probably the same ilk as somethinglike adaptation for example, where you watch

(16:07):
that and you're aware like, oh, that's Nicholas Cage is the actor there.
But it's such a kind of ait's that real life kind of character
and stuff. It's not you cansee it with I think there was a
great article recently with it's interviewing NicholasCage and he's like he's an actor that
performs in like italics and bold withhis scripts and so on, whereas this

(16:30):
he was someone that you were like, yeah, he is, he is
the everyone he is playing it howI can imagine most people on the planet
would deal with it. Then youknow, for a lot of us,
you know, we might get completelyblown over by by the fame and so
on the milk, and that's thetraditional Hollywood stories, and it like fame
corrupts them and they go to youknow, drugs and women and madness and

(16:53):
okay, maybe there's a tiny sliverof something like that, and then you
know the fall is all the moreor dramatic, whereas this is like what
would happen of like, actually,this could be my chance to do my
passion project or when there becomes thechallenges of like just taking it on the
chin but actually just getting really frustratedthat things are out with your control.
And it's it's never drama for thesake of drama. It just feels genuine

(17:18):
and stuff. And there are responsesof that is how people would react,
for better or worse. It's neverit's never over the top performance, which
I think really helps ground this film. Yeah, I think that's certainly probably
people who are familiar with Nicol's cagewould probably feel that, well, it's
going to build to a point wherehe then goes full cage. And the

(17:44):
fact that he never does that,he never pushes the button, that is
something that I really admire with hisperformance here. It is very restrained and
subtle, and yeah, he justbecomes you know, the ego and the
celebrity just washes away, and it'sjust a man who trying to deal with

(18:04):
an impossible situation because you know,there's lots of sort of moral and moral
quandaries I guess in here, inthe fact that you know, he's being
publicly vilified for attacking people and causingthem mental distress and stuff like that.
You know, there's a point wherehe gets fired from his job because you
know, none of the students wanthim to be there, and he's quite

(18:26):
rightly sort of saying, well,I didn't do that. It's the version
of me that they have in theirhead has done that, and it you
know, I think this film,if anything else, is nothing else,
is going to be a really interestingconversation starter afterwards about you know, what
would you do in that situation?How who is right? Who is wrong?
How do you do you? Imean, I think it's impossible to

(18:48):
do with something. I mean,when you get that so much, I
guess it. Yeah, it doestouch into the sort of cancel culture,
which and actually I think actually thistime in this film, Cancel Culture is
probably actually correct because every other timeI've seen people talk about cancel culture,
it's not they're being canceled, it'sthey're actually being held accountable for real stuff

(19:11):
that they've actually done, Whereas inthis film, Nicolas Cage has not its
character has not actually done anything.It's just a version in their heads that
has done the things. So thereforeit's actually really really actually I think it's
probably the first time I've seen cancelculture properly portrayed and played out in the
media. Yeah, one hundred percentagree. And it's not necessarily subtle about

(19:33):
the story. It's kind of lookingto tell and stuff. But what I
think it does really well is tosay there's there is a difference between you
know, the right wing, thepeople you know, blue techs, et
cetera. All these kind of moronsthat talk about cancel culture, they are
often talking about accountability culture. Whetherthat's people that go after and target and

(19:57):
trans individuals, for example, thosethat maybe look to kind of throw horrific
comments out there, bullying and abusivebehavior and ultimately maybe lose their job or
face the consequences. That's that's peoplebeing held accountable. Whereas cancel. Culture
can can happen and stuff. Youknow, people that maybe just have maybe

(20:18):
just said the wrong thing or justa moment of ignorance and stuff, and
it can happen. You know.It's, as you say, it is
important to differentiate between the two,but this is almost probably could play into
that people's like worst case scenario oflike you know, as you say,
you have fame and it just allgoes goes wrong and you get exposed or
manipulated, et cetera. You know, things that are out with your control

(20:42):
that you get blamed for. Youbecome the face of something. And you
know that's an element where you feelsorry for Paul. You're not someone that's
rooting for him to be get intotrouble or you're like, oh, he
did deserve that, Like he isthat person that gets caught in this kind
of storm of going viral and fameand so on. And we certainly see
there's very very little upsides to it. Yeah, and I mean this is

(21:07):
this is I guess it's got drama, it's got a comedy. I mean,
it's a very effective satire on alot of different things. But what
was interesting to me, so lookingback on the film was they could have
gone down the route of showing alot more of Paul in the media of
what the newspaper is, what theradio shows, the podcast the TV shows

(21:30):
were talking about from him, butit basically stays with him the whole story.
You get the times when you hearabout his appearances and dreams is where
he's physically talking to someone and theytell him, oh, this is what
happened and stuff like that. It'sinteresting that I think it's important that it
keeps itself contained within Paul's experience ofit, rather than showing what everyone else's

(21:52):
experienced, because I think you thenget more sympathy from if you'd seen all
the horrible things he is potentially doingin the dreams, you might potentially sympathy.
But I think it's down to that, and Nick Cage's performance is what
keeps it sort of focused on Pauland why it's then more effective is a
story. I mean, I thinkprobably in the third act does branch out

(22:14):
a bit more into the wider worldoutside of Paul. Once part of his
story is it's concluded, I guess, but before we sort of get into
the sort of third act, andI guess it's it's not really spoilers per
se, but more of the sortof statistical elements and shows where you know

(22:36):
the film potentially could have gone alot more. I just want to talk
about the possibly the finest fart gagin a long long time, and it's
so good that it's the fact thatessentially they did the same gag twice,
but for some reason it works evenbetter the second time. I don't know
how it played with your audience,but I mean we were quite sparsely populated

(23:00):
unlimited preview. It's cinema, whyso. But even then there's sort of
like thirty four people who watched itwere ending themselves at this. So for
a bit of context, Paul Matthewsnick Lea's character has gone back to a
young woman's apartment to recreate a dreamthat she has. It's the first time

(23:22):
that he's found out that he's beeninteractive in a dream, and it's this
girl's sex fantasy, and you know, he's sort of playing along with it
and let's try and help her out. And at one point he sort of
farts and then talks about how he'snervous. Uh, And it's a completely
natural body of it's actually very importantand very healthy to do. And then

(23:45):
things go a little bit further andthen he you know, suffers a bit
of premature ejaculation, but then followedby another fart. And for me,
that was just the icing on thecake of that scene. It just shows
how sort of sad and pathetic Paulis in the one opportunity has really to

(24:07):
potentially exploit his celebrity and fame andit just goes also horribly wrong, and
yeah, farts are still funny.Yeah, I'm one hundred percent with you.
And I like that, Like thereality is, like you know,
the classic thing of everyone has theirown fifteen minutes of fame and so on,
and like this is his. SoI think I do like how things

(24:29):
go quite quickly from really good toreally bad and sort of it it wraps
from there and so on. AndI really loved that scene. I mean
I it got a huge belly laughout of me for the first time.
And I'm not someone to laugh outlineat the cinema, more of a kind
of yeah, more of a littlechart like that's very funny, good good
good, or I just have alittle smile. But that got me.
And then again and I had apretty decent audience. It was in the

(24:53):
biggest screen, and yeah, itgot a really good reaction. And I
mean, it's one of those onesthat I went with my partner and I
have someone that enjoys a good fart, especially because I've been a bit on
well the past week. If peoplecan hear it in my voice, and
every time I have a little fart, she goes that, you come now,
And it's just one of those ones. So you know, I think
she said that one and I maybeset it back maybe five times since Saturday.

(25:17):
So it's a great, a greatlittle moment and so on, and
it's just such good humor and soon. I was really glad I got
to watch a film like this withan audience and just hear it go down
down so well, yeah, andso talking about this like the satire,
you know, there's that seeing metalked about with sort of Paul sort of

(25:38):
delving into the world of celebrity,kind of the most famous man on the
planet at one point, they say, and he sort of it's like what
does he do with it? Cankind of use it for good or bad?
And he has a meeting with amarketing agency run by Michael Sarah called

(26:00):
thoughts just thoughts, and they're sortof pitching stuff like, you know,
we want to use you to sellsprite. You know, you could appear
in people's dreams holding a kind ofsprite, and then everyone wants sprite,
whereas Paul just wants to be ableto write a book about intelligence, the
intelligence between ant colonies. That's allthey wanted. He just wanted, you

(26:22):
know, to become a published authorin the academic world, and so tries
to do that, but no onereally is all that keen on the idea.
They want him to use him tobecome the next face of sprite or
other merchandising opportunities. And I mean, what did you make of this marketing
agency? It's the classic thing.Once you're known for something, that's all

(26:45):
people wanted to use you for.You think of some celebrities or people that
have gone viral. You know,that's what they want. They don't want
you to be more than that.And so on your poothing that. But
again, that was a brilliant scene, the whole thing, Like it was
just one of those ones. Theword sprite just now is very funny to
me. And just the fact thatyou mentioned you know, we're talking about

(27:06):
Sprite and you know, can maybeget Obama to to you know, dream
about you. And I just lovehow that just comes up every so often
as his frustration of like, ohand and you were on the Obama thing,
the Obama thing, and and againI liked how there is a film
where this man of sort of likequote unquote integrity, you know, a
bit of a boffin, et cetera. He gets corrupted by and he becomes

(27:26):
all famous and vain and forgets allabout his family, et cetera, and
he goes down that route of kindof pouring himself out there with two advertisers,
Whereas I like how he's like,no, like I want to use
this to make that book and soon. And I think that's something Again,
you nailed it earlier. You wantto feel sympathy and empathy for this

(27:48):
guy and so on, and youknow you're not sitting there screaming like don't
do this. You know, maybethere's that one scene where you're kind of
doing that, but for the mostpart, you're you're kind of supporting him,
and you're there for whole ninety minutesof that journey. And I think
that's something that's really really important.And I did love that seeing Michael Cerro
was was fantastic in it, andjust yeah, I'm still can't look at

(28:11):
that at the word sprite the sameway again, No, I did love
the running gag of the Obama thingand that you know, he's talking to
his wife on the phone after them. How do the meeting goes like,
oh, you know, yeah,they're good down for the publishing thing,
but you know, they want meto sell sprite and she's like Sprite and
he's like, but they were talkingto Obama as well. And then as

(28:33):
things get progressively the worst, it'slike, so where are we on the
whole Obama thing? Is he ishe still in stuff like that, desperately
clinging to the idea that Obama's goingto be able to pull them out of
this whole, But instead it sortof goes down so of the other route,
where you know he's you know,he does write a book in the
end. It is to be fair, He does write the book, but
not the one he wanted, insteadwriting about his experience of appearing people's dreams.

(29:00):
But it's a small fringe publishing outfit, which leads to the title I
Am your nightmare and he's forced toput on like a Freddy Krueger style glove
and things like that, and Iknow that they sort of it was interesting
to see that that was you know, I guess quite understandably. You know,
this is an A twenty four film. There's a trailer for which maybe

(29:21):
makes it seem slightly more horrific andsensationalized than the end product. We all
know it comes at night, canbe mentioned there, but the fact that
it was interesting that the trailer didsort of play up the sort of nightmare
aspect and sort of Freddy Krueger gloveand stuff like that. So it was
interesting to see that it was actuallyjust a very sort of small part and
one that Paul didn't really want toplay up at all. Yeah, I

(29:45):
like that. My favorite bits ofthat sort of tour is just a bit
where like the light falls and justhits them in the head and it's just
one of those moments where you're justlike you feel like, yeah, you
say, oh, for fox sake, and yeah, such a great and
I just really felt for him atthat moment, and yeah, it's it's
you know, it's just again,that's that's the importance of the film and

(30:06):
Cage's performance and his character is thatyou just feel for him because that could
have been been any of us,you know, or maybe it's there a
little message to just take it,not take for granted, you know,
an ordinary life, you know,being with people that care for you,
love you, because you know,something that could be out with completely your
control could kind of take that awayand so on, which is just one

(30:30):
of the things that's truly in fairin life. I know, for me,
I'm not want to get pissed offor rattled easily. But when there's
a problem that's out with my controlwhere I can't fix it, and things
just having an impact on me thatannoys me, I can't address it,
and I can I can certainly empathizewith with Paul's thoughts. There be careful
what you wish for. People,be careful what you wish for. So

(30:55):
it's interesting that as the story progressesand Paul's sort of fifteen minutes of fame
sort of comes to an end,we sort of get a hint of what
the wider world is going to bepost Paul Matthews, because you know,
he appeared in everyone's dreams for awhile and then just as randomly as it
started, it seems to end.But why leave it there? You know,

(31:19):
if there's a way to make moneyout of this, people are going
to make money out of this.And that's where we're kind of introduced into
a cameo from a succession star NicholasBrawn with a device that I think it
was called the Noglia, which allowspeople to enter other people's dreams with a
specific purpose really in order to advertiseproducts. So the way that Nick Cage

(31:42):
would have been advertising spritening people's dreams. People could just jump into your dream
and sell your products. And it'sprobably sort of the weakest part for me,
I've thinness, because Nick Cage sortof kind of drifts out of the
story at that point, but itis. It's funny, but it's also

(32:02):
completely believable that if someone was ableto harness that technology, it's exactly what
would have happened. I mean,it sort of reminded me of what was
it Minority Report about twenty years ago, with the sort of with Tom Cruise
sort of walking through the mall.Whenever he makes eye contact with a store,
he gets like a personalized advert tellinghim what's on in the store.
So yes, if someone can makeit happen, then someone will make it

(32:24):
happen. Elon Musk has probably watcheddream Scenario and gone, can we do
that? Can we do that?Can we get on that? I agree
it is the weakest bit. Andthere was a bit in the film where
it's kind of like, oh,this story has come to a natural kind
of end at this point, andso on, Oh, this is kind
of like the you know, theprologue sort of thing about what happens next

(32:46):
in that world, and it kindof felt like they kind of needed this
sort of technology to set up whatwas a really sweet and loving kind of
ending and so on, and shoutto Nicholas Brawn in his second Day twenty
fourth film after Sola. But yeah, like the ending, which pays tribute

(33:07):
to another one of the best Daytwenty four films of the year, there
was like it was one of thoseones. I didn't like that section,
but it needed it to pay offthis really excellent ending, which I kind
of can be a bit forgiving offor giving me that. Yeah, it's
not it can't get the sort offull sort of five style one for me,

(33:30):
but it was a good, solidfour. I think for me four
at five for this one here,I think I really enjoyed watching it.
There's a lot of interesting things tosay, kind of stumbles towards the end,
where it also sort of felt like, in a way, which is

(33:51):
weird to say, given it's afilm full of ideas and stuff like that,
it did kind of run at asteam slightly where you know, it's
they got the central concept and theyweren't entirely sure how to wrap it all.
It's like it felt like the filmwas made longer when they could have
potentially, Like you say, itdid feel like it was coming towards it
like an end that sort of cutsto black and then it's got a foot

(34:12):
of Paul and you're like, ohgosh, what's happened to Paul? And
then it sort of goes into thiswhole other thing and you're like, oh,
okay, but I'd kind of beinterested to go back to what's happening
with Paul, to be honest,because you know, as ordinary as he
was, he's still a very veryinstinct character. Yeah, And I think
this is the best example we spokeabout a few weeks ago, like a
twenty four and IP and where doesit go next, and I think this

(34:34):
is just a reminder of what itdoes really really well and so on.
And you know, I don't knowwhat the budget was on this film.
You know, I can imagine itwas decent, but it's not hugely going
to be spectacular. But this isthe type of film that should hopefully do
well with with audiences. I knowit's going to be going up against the
Marvels, for for example, thisWeekend is the counterprogramming film. But films
like this should be successful. AndI was watching it thinking this would have

(35:00):
been a big hit in the ninetiesand early two thousands, whereas there's a
they're worry that this might just getget overlooked and so on. But I
really hope it's a hit. There'scertainly they've certainly invested in the marketing here
in the UK anyway, which isa good sign. And it's one of
these rare a twenty four films thatcome out in America at the same time
as it comes out abroad, whichis always a good sign of quote a

(35:22):
quote a product that people are confidentin. So yeah, well we'll certainly
see how things unfold. But yeah, I was really charmed by the whole
thing, and I'm the same.I give it a four out of five,
but got out. I'd recommend itto most so I'd recommend it to
my normy workmates or people that justenjoy a film, and it's I just
think it's great to just see somethingoriginal and you know, a reminder of

(35:45):
A twenty four that balance, whichI think they'll have to thread as they
go forward. Yeah, no,it's it's interesting. It's been interesting to
see how how much it's been pushedin the UK. Certainly obviously with the
fact it was an unlimited screening.Then obviously the Cinewill we're pushing it hard
on the trailer front, and yeah, it does make for good counterprogramming against

(36:05):
something like the Marvels this weekend.I know in the US they've been doing
a lot of previous screamings and stufflike that where you can get your photo
next to a cardboard cutout of NickCage's Paul Matthews. I would quite happily
have one to have in my house. But I guess we've got to see
how well A twenty four completely.Are they going to start doing an aw

(36:28):
campaign where people have dreamt Are theygoing to talk about you know, are
they going to try and do theactual thing of trying to get people dreaming
about nick Age or will we findyou? Are you going to do now
tonight dream about the fact that youcan get the Midsummer screenplaybook? Is that
going to appear in your dream andyou go, I really should buy that?
You know, are they going tostart seeing a twenty four candles or

(36:51):
really expensive Priscilla jewelry in our headsand be forced to buy them because it's
like, oh, it can't getit out of my head. I'm going
to do it. I'm going todo it. Have your pre ordered The
Midsummer I did look at it,and even with the membership discount, like
shipping, the shipping seems to havegone up in price where it was like
I looked at it, it waslike stilly one hundred dollars and stuff.

(37:13):
I was like, I was like, not this time. I'll maybe wait
for you wait for a couple ofthings and then we'll do a joint order
and split a good idea, goodidea, excellent. So yes, the
end of another episode, like Isay, we're not sure what's going to
be next, because yeah, we'rekind of getting a bit dry. We

(37:34):
do have Earth Mama comes out atthe beginning of December, and we still
have Medusa Touch to review. It'son the bank as well. Yeah there's
that Shane Meadows a twenty four proshow all on iPlayer as well, so
we've got an interview with him inthe TV shows. Yeah, well that's
what we can do. We canhave a week look at that eyeplayer,
no adverts, we've got an interview. Hey, that's something sorted for for

(37:57):
a Winter's night coming soon. Absolutelyso great. So hopefully you have enjoyed
this episode and perhaps you may evensee so in your dreams. We'll see
you next time.