What If ...

 ... two dudes tried to survive the apocalypse in a biodome and Nicolas Cage started showing up in everybody's dreams ...

BIOSPHERE (B+) - This whole experiment relies critically on your ability to suspend disbelief. And I won't even come close to ruining the plot twist that requires the viewer to toss most rationality out the window. 

The important thing here is that Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown ("Waves") are wonderful companions -- to each other and in relation to us -- and Duplass and director Mel Eslyn have written a fascinating, if weird, post-dystopian tale of survival. Duplass' Billy and Brown's Ray share a biodome designed by Ray, an oasis in a dark world. Billy, an aging hipster gamer, used to be president of the United States, and Ray's wiles somehow rescued them. Their survival, though, is threatened when the fish they rely on for essential protein start dying off. Will our heroes and the fish find a way to survive?

Since that's all I can say about the plot, let me wax on a bit about Duplass. First, Brown is really good here, but there is no filmmaker/writer/actor like Mark Duplass. He has a unique ability to create relatable characters and then imbue them with so much humanity and nuance that his performances can seem otherworldly yet impeccably grounded. Here he inhabits a complex man-child who is unafraid to explore the emotional depths of his lifelong friendship. He can be effortlessly funny -- in particularly subtle ways -- and deeply moving. Just a glance or a perfunctory line delivery can speak volumes

Maybe great actors really do need to suffer for their art. As I write this I noticed that the New Yorker just published a lengthy interview with Duplass, in which he discusses a lifetime battle with depression. I don't know what his secret is. But no one has created more quality films, TV shows and performances than he has, whether as a producer with his brother Jay or in projects such as this, where he collaborates on a script and then co-stars. Imagine putting yourself out there so often and in so many ways -- and succeeding in almost every project you take on. "Biosphere" is proof that he has not run out of intriguing ideas or creative ways to put a neat spin on a genre that has been beaten into the ground. 

From his film origins in the Mumblecore movement ("The Puffy Chair") through mainstream success while maintaining indie cred, Duplass is easily, by far, the best multi-hyphenate storyteller of our generation. And whether or not you buy the crazy gimmick in "Biosphere" you'd be hard-pressed to walk out on his and Brown's compelling two-man show.

DREAM SCENARIO (B) - I laughed a lot during this meandering thought experiment, mostly at Nicolas Cage's shlubby, passive-agressive college professor who, for some bizarre reason, begins to pop up in humanity's nightly dreams. Whereas "Biosphere" is meticulously thought-out and logically airtight (if farfetched), here writer-director Kristoffer Borgli was struck with a really good idea but didn't really map everything out well and loses the thread in the second half.

Kudos to the makeup department for the convincing bald pate on Cage's Paul Matthews, a nerd who lets others take advantage of him. His first appearances in dreams are innocuous, and he starts to get recognized wherever he goes, but then his actions in the dreams turn violent, and he in shunned, even ousted from polite society. It's kind of a groaning take on cancel culture, but it does finally draw Paul out of his doldrums as he tries to fight for his right to exist. 

All the while, Cage wrings melancholy humor out of the material. But the second half of the film is a mess. One bright spot is Michael Cera as head of a PR team trying to sell Paul on the idea of adding product placements to his appearances in people's subconsciouses. Cera is great, but the idea goes nowhere, gets dropped for a while, then gets wildly overplayed as Borgli rushes to wrap everything up. Another fun scene involves a gathering of Paul's fragile students, guided by another teacher who tries to gently reintroduce them to this Walter Mitty version of Freddy Krueger, only to frighten them all off.

There are some interesting ideas here, but they never gel. It's never boring, though, just clunky. Cage gets an assist from Julianne Nicholson as Paul's long-suffering wife and Dylan Gelula as a PR assistant who wants to re-create the sex dreams she has about Paul, to disastrous results. Even if it falls short of its potential, there's enough here to appreciate everyone's effort.

BONUS TRACK

At one point in "Biosphere," the friends dance around to obscure '70s-'80s pop songs by a band called Zeus. Here is "I Love the Night," which sounds like Rick Springfield fronting the Cars: 

I've never heard of this band, and I can't find out much about them on the internet. I mean, who are these masked rockers?