‘Dream’ Review: A Film I Watched So You Don’t Have To

It might be assumed that someone who goes by the name WriterBoy would produce work that is worthy of a name, however, this film doesn’t measure up. 

At first glance, the 2022 film Dream has a kind of poetic slant to it. Built similarly to a book with chapters and each one centers on an aspect of the main character’s life (Malcolm played by Terrill Brown), has a magical quality to it. The story is about a young boy who wants to grow up and be a famous writer. Malcolm wants to express ideas and thoughts in ways that others before him could only imagine and this consumes him night and day. If only the writer of this script put in as much effort as his character claimed to have done in the film.

Dream is a coming-of-age story that depicts Malcolm’s rise from an orphan to a foster group home, to the author of his own life and book. The difficulties Malcolm faces in a world that doesn’t believe in him pushes him to understand that his life is a constant battlefield of short-lived victories, long sorrows, and regrettable choices that he hopes will pay off someday.

Directed and written by WriterBoy, (born Brandon George Washington) this particular project purports to be more important than what it is by including long monologues of pseudo-inspirational nonsense. Any moments of genius are overshadowed by the idea that every scene with Malcolm must be solid gold. For this film, that means that Malcolm must have as many poignant soliloquies shoehorned into a regular conversation as scenes in water (which there are a lot of).

The film opens with young Malcolm (Danny Washington Jr.) sitting in the car with his mother, who is never seen or heard about going forward. A calm and peaceful drive quickly turns into a travesty that leaves young Malcolm in the arms of the foster care system. Young Malcolm’s personality is established as someone who scarcely speaks but communicates through his writing. Shifting from foster care home to home, he quickly finds a friend in young Brian (Isaiah Washington). Unfortunately for young Malcolm, this newfound friendship doesn’t last. Brian departs the home with his new foster family, and it is here that the story starts to slowly unravel.

Several years later, Malcolm (Terrill Brown) is a teenager who is still living in the foster care group home. His interactions with his roommates are brief and sometimes unpleasant. Malcolm, a dreamer who wants to achieve his goals in life. Often, he is told to let his dreams go, they are unrealistic, not practical, and even dismissed as boyish thoughts. He, however, doesn’t see them the way others do. He understands that his dreams are not without struggle and strife. He gets in trouble with the law, local businesses, and even his social worker. All signs point to a bad path, but he is unyielding in his resolve.  

The script is sloppy, and the dialogue is worse. Malcolm is discussing his future options with his social worker, who proves to be more than fair with the options. She offers him potential colleges and he turns them all down. Malcolm states, “I don’t want to go to college, I want to write!” She tells him that he can write while he is at school or write for the school’s newspaper. He declines and instead decides to work a part-time job at a movie theater while writing. The failure is that he refuses to see how college can help him become a better writer.

The writing and scenes for the film are both jarring and unsteady. In one scene, Malcolm is lying in bed awake attempting to rest and moments later his roommate gets up to either rape him, beat him, or perhaps even both. The uncertainty of the scene leaves a lot to be desired from. Following that, Malcolm is standing over the sink with his shirt ripped, cleaning the blood off of himself. He justly runs away in the middle of the night looking for a new place to stay. This scene is never touched on again or even explained.

Malcolm’s life has moments of hollow bliss, which alleviates if only momentarily a large amount of doubt and negativity that is cast on the film. Malcolm eventually finds his lifelong friend, Brian, and rekindles their friendship. Soon after that, Erick, Malcolm’s father. reaches out to him, and they slowly become reacquainted. Their interactions are strained and brief, and justly so, but Malcolm unrealistically expects his father to know his likes, dislikes, and even favorite color after only meeting him for a few minutes. He finally allows a relationship to be established between him and his father. 

Erick offer’s him an opportunity at the most serendipitous moment of his life. In a previous conversation, Brian explains to Malcolm that New York is the place to be for anyone who wants to be a writer. He quickly jumps on this and asks his father for his approval. At this point in the film, Erick’s character is not developed enough to tell us who he is as a person, nonetheless, Malcolm thinks this is a great idea. Erick takes a contract position in New York and offers Malcolm a place to stay. It is here that we are instantly thrown into his father’s abusive nature and dangerous flirtation with alcoholism. He is not only abusive towards his son Malcolm but his wife as well.

According to Dream’s IMDB page, a lot of these actors, with few exceptions, are novices in their craft, and it greatly shows. The actors are not solely to blame since they are working with what can only be described as a working draft. The most believable aspect of this film is young Malcolm’s performance. He embodies pure potential and outperforms his co-stars in every scene, leaving us wanting more from his performance. It is a shame that most of the film doesn’t focus on his development in childhood. The film might have benefited greatly with him at the forefront.

Unfortunately, WriterBoy’s script falters from the start. His project attempts to dramatize and poeticize interactions that feel more forced than they need to be. For instance, WriterBoy constructs the script to have Malcolm living in New York for several months and is unable to find a job. His stepmother, getting tired of taking care of him, beats him, but the acting just isn’t there. It’s clear that WriterBoy wants audiences to understand that she was beaten so much that she needs someone weaker than her to beat on, but the tension needed for this explosive anger is ineffectively thrown together. 

Dream tackles themes that are noteworthy and admirable to investigate with the main protagonist. Dream is about a boy who wants to be a writer and comes to discover that the world is not kind to boys who choose their dreams over practical money-making fields. While the film won’t win awards, a positive note is that this film can be used in film study classes as an example of what not to do.

Dream is now available on Prime Video