Do you dream of Nic Cage? You will after seeing his latest, ‘Dream Scenario’

It seems crazy to imagine, but it was just seven short months ago that I found myself watching “Beau is Afraid” and wondering how I had gotten myself dosed at a movie theater. Based on what I was viewing, I clearly had ingested some awful hallucinogen that was fucking with my fragile psyche.

I fought against the urge to get up and leave after the two-and-a-half mark. I thought, surely, this can’t go on much longer. I was wrong. I hadn’t even made it to the cock-and-ball monster, or the Patti LuPone mommy monster, or the Pink Floyd tribunal at sea.

I struggled for days, my appreciation for director/writer Ari Aster’s first two films (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar”) under sustained assault by the anger and confusion caused by “Beau is Afraid.”

But now, now I understand.

And it’s all thanks to Nicolas Cage.

Cage’s latest film, “Dream Scenario,” is the movie that Aster was trying to make before he got derailed by every possible flight of fancy imaginable, and some that should never be given life. Ironically, Aster also is a producer on “Dream Scenario.”

With just his second feature, Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli has crafted a nightmarish vision of modern society that’s as beautifully realized as it is uncomfortable at times to watch.

Cage delivers an incredible performance as Paul, a nebbish college professor who dreams of writing a book about animals who survive by blending in and not standing out.

His mediocre, average life is upended unexpectedly by a phenomenon whereby Paul suddenly starts appearing in dreams. Not his own dreams, mind you, but the dreams of countless people around the globe. Whether they’re having sex or being chased or hiding from a monster in the closet, Paul just appears. Even in his daughter’s dream, he just stands there raking leaves while she slowly floats up into the sky untethered.

Our 24/7 need to share every moment of our lives instantly turns Paul into a celebrity as more and more people go online to talk about the weird dude in their dreams.

And Paul can’t get enough of the attention, much like anyone who has ever posted something on Facebook and then immediately started refreshing the page waiting for the likes and comments to start pouring in.

Some people want to kill Paul because they see him as a threat, a conspiracy theory come to life. Others want to get freaky with their own personal Paultergeist, only in real life. A marketing firm run by Michael Cera, in a hilarious cameo, wants Paul to transcend until he infects the zeitgeist.

And then, just as quickly, it all begins to unravel. Paul gets aggressive in people’s dreams; violent. Public opinion turns. He gets canceled, kicked out by his wife, shunned by his daughter and ostracized by society.

In one chilling scene, Paul can’t even sit quietly at a table in a restaurant by himself because his mere presence scares and offends all the other diners.

“Dream Scenario” is just fantastic, but also deeply disturbing.

Unlike Aster, whose “Beau is Afraid,” seemed content to careen along like a toddler high on Adderall, Borgli has found that sweet spot, where surrealist cinema can both entertain and inform, to push people to hopefully consider how the world around them now operates.

To me, that’s the real message.

Yes, we should be scared of who we have become in this new world, but we should be even more terrified of the power we’ve handed over to society; a single keystroke and we’re done.

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