Natalie D.C.
The road movie is a staple of American cinema, popularized in the late 1960s and early 1970s with films like Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider from 1969, Steven Spielberg’s 1971 film Duel, and Terrence Malick’s Badlands from 1973. While genre-defining, these stories aren’t especially known for their diversity, often focusing on only one type of perspective: white, male, cis, and straight. Written and directed by Shatara Michelle Ford in their 2024 sophomore feature, Dreams in Nightmares seeks to tell a different kind of road story as it follows three queer Black femmes, Z (UnREAL TV star Denée Benton), Lauren (Dezi Bing, in her film debut), and Tasha (Sasha Compère of TV’s Single Drunk Female), as they navigate love, identity, and belonging on a journey across America to find their missing friend, Kel (Mars Storm Rucker of Broadway’s Tina). Original and tender, Dreams in Nightmares premiered at the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival and is slated for a limited U.S. theatrical release from Lunette Films on August 28.
“I think my ancestors are trying to tell me something.” These are the first words of the film. They are spoken by protagonist Z, who, after having a cryptic dream juxtaposedly composed of archival footage from The Great Migration, modern electro-pop music, and a surreal door leading to an unknown destination, gets unexpectedly laid off from her job as a creative writing professor.
This introduction to Z, passionately scored by Lia Ouyang Rusli (known for their work on Sorry, Baby and Happyend), sets the tone for the rest of the film as the audience gets to know joyful poet Lauren and practical, recently laid off Tasha. After Z catches a flight from California to New York, reuniting with the pair of roommates, the group starts to wonder where their old friend Kel has been for the past few months, setting a road trip like no other into motion.
As Z, Lauren, and Tasha drive across America—stopping everywhere from a drag poetry hour in Pittsburgh (shoutout!) to bitter ex Sabrina (Yellowjackets star Jasmin Savoy Brown)’s place in Iowa City to Kel’s unsupportive parents’ house in Kansas City—Dreams in Nightmares proves itself to be an incredibly important film.
While the trio decides how best to find their friend, they also grapple with their own interpersonal issues as Black queer femmes. Lauren finds community at a poetry reading fervently led by her trans friend Toni (Joss Barton). Z ponders the future of her non-monogamous relationship with her partner Reece (Charlie Barnett). Lastly, Tasha questions if she’s truly happy in her career (and city) of choice. Perspectives like these are rarely put on screen, yet Dreams in Nightmares does so boldly and authentically. Ford’s confident direction as well as the cast’s chemistry with one another efficiently moves the story along, even as the film stretches well past the 90-minute mark.
Dreams in Nightmares is undoubtedly one of this year’s top indie gems. With that said, it’s far from the perfect romp. Throughout the over-2-hour-long film, two lessons become very clear: less is more and showing can be just as important as telling. Specifically, some scenes stretch on for way too long. Those include Toni’s spell-binding performance, while others are bafflingly cut short. As a pro tip, climactic reunions should almost never be made over a phone call.
While this film’s length familiarizes the audience with its protagonists—their colorful personalities, their all-too-real struggles, and their radically optimistic hopes for the future—it also causes fatigue not unlike what one would experience during an actual road trip. Nonetheless, Dreams in Nightmares is most certainly a worthy follow-up to Ford’s standout directorial debut, 2019’s Test Pattern, and ultimately a must-watch, especially for those in the margins who struggle to see themselves in the American road movies of yesteryear.
