‘Dreams in Nightmares’ Trailer: Denée Benton Leads a New Kind of Road Trip Movie

If you’ve only been treated to actress and singer Denée Benton’s work in series like “The Gilded Age” and stage musicals like “The Great Comet” and “Hamilton,” this summer at the movies has a real treat for you: Benton’s first lead role in a feature film.

Benton leads an enviable cast in Shatara Michelle Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,” which follows the filmmaker’s festival hit and IndieWire favorite “Test Pattern.” The film follows four long-time friends, all queer Black women in their mid-thirties, as they embark on a road trip that’s also something of a thriller. Benton leads the group as Z, whose life has been upended by a recent layoff from a prized adjunct teaching gig at an LA arts college.

Z’s worries about what’s next for her career soon give way to headier concerns: What’s next for her? Where does she belong? Where does any person of color? Any queer person? Any person who is even slightly “different”? Benton easily embodies both Z’s everyday worries, her larger concerns, and an off-kilter dream-y subplot that takes us squarely inside the character’s head.

Eventually, the film adds in Z’s best friends Tasha (Sasha Compère), Lauren (Dezi Bing), and Kel (Mars Rucker), as the foursome eventually reunite for their unpredictable road trip. Ford tucks major ideas and themes into the stunning feature, one that functions both as an intimate exploration of identity and a rallying cry for a new kind of world. While the potential for that sort of ambition could lead another filmmaker into academic, dry territory, Ford’s film (and Benton’s performance) is the opposite: alive, surprising, funny, shocking, and true.

The film is Ford’s second feature and already a favorite in the IndieWire world. Ford previously shared with us the very thoughtful community guidelines that helped shape the film and the experience its cast and crew participated in, along with their thoughts on how the indie filmmaking biz needs to grow and evolve.

First step, at least in our minds: more films like this one.

You can watch the first trailer for “Dreams in Nightmares,” an IndieWire exclusive, below. The film will open in New York City on Friday, August 21 and Los Angeles on Friday, August 28, followed by a wide release at theaters in September.