Dream a Little Dream

Introduction by Corey Feldman on Jan. 10

Far and away the strangest example to come out of the late 1980s cycle of body-swap comedies, Dream a Little Dream follows bratty teenager Bobby Keller (Corey Feldman) and the eccentric Coleman Ettinger (Jason Robards), a researcher so hopelessly in love with this wife (Piper Laurie) that he conducts an experiment to consciously enter a dream state with her forever—but instead wakes up in Bobby’s body, while his and his wife’s bodies, as well as Bobby’s mind, are trapped in an unconscious realm. The film was initially conceived as a four-hour-long meditation on spiritualism and a showcase for Feldman’s acting chops; Vestron Pictures (best known for Dirty Dancing) eventually winnowed it down to under two hours and turned it into another “two Coreys” film by casting Corey Haim as Bobby’s best friend. Nevertheless, it remains a pleasantly offbeat comedy for its time, with an unrelentingly 1980s soundtrack and an all-too-memorable dance sequence in which Feldman impersonates Michael Jackson.