Dreams Don’t Belong to Everyone

MOVIE REVIEWS
Dreams
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Genre: Erotic Drama, Psychological Drama
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director(s): Michel Franco
Writer(s): Michel Franco
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernández, Rupert Friend, Marshall Bell, Eligio Meléndez, Mercedes Hernández
Where to Watch: available in theaters February 27, 2026

RAVING REVIEW: When power, not affection, is the first thing to shape it, what does love look like? DREAMS starts like a romance, but doesn’t want to ease anyone in. Right from the beginning, between Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain) and Fernando Rodríguez (Isaac Hernández), there’s a lack of balance, not in obvious spitefulness, but in quiet domination. Writer/director Michel Franco isn’t making a big, cross-cultural love story; he’s making a deal which, little by little, shows what it’s about.

Franco’s films regularly examine malevolence within society, and DREAMS continues his interest in power dynamics. This time, the place where this happens is in familiarity. Jessica Chastain is Jennifer, a wealthy American in society whose charity and public image conceal something much more fragile. Hernández, in his first major role, plays Fernando, a talented Mexican ballet dancer whose hopes become entangled with her power over him.

Franco’s directing is focused and direct. He doesn’t make the relationship seem romantic, nor does he overdo it. Scenes are often set with very little showiness, letting silence say more than words ever could. The camera watches, instead of telling you what to feel. This holding back makes the audience question what they’re seeing, rather than just taking it in.

Chastain gives one of her most relaxed performances yet. Jennifer isn’t portrayed as a bad person; she thinks she’s giving. She thinks she’s forward-thinking. She thinks she’s in love. Chastain gets that being privileged often looks like kindness. Her acting is controlled and careful, and often makes you uneasy, because she very seldom shows when Jennifer is going too far. It’s the lack of genuine kindness that makes someone dangerous. 

Hernández proves Franco was right to take the risk. Because he’s a dancer, he already knows how to tell a story with his body, and that transfers easily to an on-screen performance. Fernando shows wanting, uncertainty, and ambition, with very little speech. His body language often goes against what he says. In scenes where he looks confident, there’s a clear feeling of depending on someone underneath. Hernández brings charm, but he also brings a frailty that doesn’t seem polished, and that helps the part.

The ‘sexy parts’ are at the center, not just there for show. Franco has said they drive the story, and that’s very clear. These scenes aren’t to make you spicy. They make clear who starts things, who slows things down, and who pulls back. How intimacy happens becomes how power happens. That said, Franco not taming down these moments will put some people off. The film’s physical side is meant to make you face things.

The story about crossing the border is woven into the relationship, rather than treated as a separate thought. Suddenly, what began as wanting becomes needing. Jennifer’s money gives her a hold, not just in society, but in law. Franco doesn’t turn this into a political speech. Instead, he lets the lack of balance show through what happens. The idea is clear, without being said.

DREAMS is best when it doesn’t try to make things simple. There aren’t any clear victims or bad people. Jennifer’s being alone is real. Fernando’s ambition is true. Both people use and are used by the other. Not being sure about what’s right and wrong gives the film its importance. Franco’s style is cold on purpose, and at times.

The acting from the supporting cast, especially Rupert Friend as Jennifer’s husband, is more about making the structure stronger than about giving full stories to the parts. That isn’t a fault, so much as showing Franco’s focus. The film isn’t interested in a wider story about a family. It’s interesting in what happens when wealth and wanting come together, when giving and control come together.

What stays in your mind most about DREAMS isn’t its sex or its politics about borders. It’s a quiet showing of how easily good feelings can turn into possession. Jennifer wants to help. She wants to keep what she thinks is love. But helping becomes a stranglehold. Keeping becomes control.

Franco’s films have always been in places that make people uneasy, and DREAMS is no different. It makes you face things, without showing you, it's political without slogans, it's a conclusion without softening the edges, for some people, that’ll seem courageous. For others, it will feel like you can’t feel it. The film doesn’t care which side you’re on. It’s more interested in making you sit with the imbalance.

DREAMS isn’t made to pull the audience in. It’s made to make them uneasy. It says that wanting doesn’t take away levels of power, and that romance can’t live when power isn’t the same on both sides. Whether that comes over as shocking or distant will depend on how much you’re willing to take in Franco’s way of doing things.

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[photo courtesy of GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT]

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