Tag Archives: Kristoffer Borgli

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Truth Bomb

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The Drama

by George Wolf

If The Drama is in your date night plans, better put the dinner after the movie.

Hoo-boy. You’re gonna need to make some time for conversation.

Writer/director Kristofer Borgli continues his social provocateur-ing with look inside a couple thrown waaay off course by a shocking confession. The aftermath – affecting not only the couple involved but other couples in their orbit – becomes a darkly funny and intentionally cringe-worthy dissection of intimacy.

Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are knee deep in wedding plans. As Charlie works on this planned remarks, his remembrances give us an organic – if one sided – primer on the Emma/Charlie relationship.

But one night while sampling food and wine menu options with their fiends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim), everyone starts confessing about “the worst thing they’ve ever done.” It’s all embarrassing fun and games, until Emma takes a a turn.

Over a decade ago, Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure explored how relationships are changed in an instant by one man’s panicked choice. Borgli picks similar scabs, but with a more serrated and much darker edge.

Pattinson is excellent as a man struggling with the notion that his fiancé’s past should not change how he sees her. Zendaya makes the complexities of Emma’s life after the confession seem desperately authentic, and her search for support from those she trusted most achingly real.

Haim gives Rachel some serious teeth, taking instant and very personal umbrage to Emma’s reveal, and Hailey Gates impresses in a smaller role as a co-worker of Charlie’s who gets a little too close to his breakdown.

Because the thought experiment here isn’t just about Emma and Charlie. Borgli, even more-so than he did with 2023’s Dream Scenario, invites you to imagine yourself in several roles (and, of course, to judge the choices of those around you). The script is crisp, the humor is coal black, and the pacing (aided by some nifty editing and visual cues) keeps you invested at every turn.

“You always turn my drama into comedy,” Charlie says early on.

The line ends up feeling like Borgli’s own confession. The Drama is a totally different rom-com animal, one that many may find just too confrontational. But there’s a layer of hope to be found here, too, and a kind of unflinching eye that’s hard not to respect.

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Runnin’ Down a Dream

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Dream Scenario

by Hope Madden

Why does the zebra look the way it does? Can anyone think of a benefit to that pattern? Those stripes help zebras blend into the group, go unnoticed. And when no one notices you, you’re safe.

But wouldn’t everyone rather feel special?

Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) would. Too bad there is nothing particularly special about him. He’s a tenured professor, but not a researcher. He wants to write a book, just hasn’t actually written anything yet. And then, somehow, suddenly, everyone is dreaming about him.

Well, the dream is not about Paul, per se. But there he is, anyway, standing there and not participating.

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) once again analyzes and satirizes the cultural obsession with attention. But by moving the focus to a middle-aged, relatively ordinary man, Borgli removes the wag of the finger toward the young and their vacuous nature. Instead, Dream Scenario becomes an unnervingly accurate portrayal of our whole cultural attention span.

This is absurdist horror comedy at its best, leaning toward Charlie Kaufman’s take on humanity. That, of course, makes Cage an apt choice for the lead. Cage delivered two magnificent comedic performances in the Kaufman-penned Adaptation, garnering an Oscar nomination. In that film he played a neurotic intellectual and an oblivious dufus. In a way, he does that here, too.

Every half dozen films or so, Nic Cage reminds us of his singular talent. Pig (2021) again proved his humbling dramatic power. Dream Scenario (like Adaptation) recalls his nimble comedic skill.

Equally nimble is Borgli’s writing, coloring the all-too-real horror of celebrity with running jokes about ants, zebras and the Talking Heads. None of the richness in the script is lost on Cage or a game ensemble –including Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera and Tim Meadows – mainly playing it straight so Cage can melt down gloriously.

The director slides so easily through tonal shifts that even one sincere, romantic moment feels at home. As does the film’s theme: none of this is real.