Dreaming is one of the most powerful ways kids make sense of chaos or imagine what comes next. Whether it is school pressure, first crushes, or home shifting under their feet, dreams turn fear into something they can face.
In Your Dreams, streaming on Netflix on November 14, director Alex Woo channels that instinct into a bright, breathless adventure that helps younger audiences process complex emotions as they navigate the uncertainty of parents drifting apart.
The beauty of Woo’s film is that its complexity reads as simplicity. The candy-coated trailers tease Stevie (Jolie Hoang Rappaport) and her brother Elliot (Elias Janssen), venturing through an absurd, neon dreamworld to keep their perfect family of Dad (Simu Liu) and Mom (Cristin Milioti), whole. On screen, the movie is more emotionally nuanced than the marketing suggests, yet it still leans toward accessibility for younger viewers. That mix of gentle framing for kids and recognizable truth for adults anchors the film’s best choices.
Drawing on his family’s near split, Woo structures the story around a shared dreamscape the siblings enter after discovering a book about the Sandman. When Stevie overhears her parents whispering about taking a job offer in Duluth, a bigger house, better schools, and more money, she pieces together that separation might be coming because their dad disagrees.
Convinced that finding the Sandman is the only way to make their wish come true, Stevie and Elliot chase him across a patchwork of dreams, only to be blocked by the vaporous Nightmara, who jolts them awake. Determined, they lull themselves back to sleep with a sound machine and push on. Sweet dreams sour into odd nightmares. Breakfast Town’s friendly pastries rot into moldy zombies. Hungry hot dogs give chase. Teeth crumble. Pop quizzes materialize. They suddenly find themselves naked in a department store.
Because dreams mirror Stevie and Elliot’s hopes, fears, and desires, they start to believe this world can fix real problems. As the eldest, Stevie shoulders the job of keeping the family together, while Elliot follows, the two bound by a shared psychic link and a chant promising the Sandman will make dreams come true. The challenge of it all is to find a way to not be so scared of their nightmares that they’ll wake up. Luckily, Elliot’s stuffed one-eyed deli meat-smelling Giraffe named Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson) is there to help out since he knows the rules of the dream world.
If the film ever feels saccharine, remember these are kids without all the answers or the vocabulary for why their parents are drifting apart. Their response is to wish, imagine, and try. The humor is big, like fists made of dynamite or full on anime bits, and the logic is intentionally illogical because it is contained within the dream world. While other dream films swing darker or more nightmarish, these visions feel authentically childlike. Baloney Tony shoots laser farts. An entire world is built on breakfast food. A bed floats down a ball pit river. The nightmares keep things from tipping into pure sugar, but nothing becomes truly terrifying.
Woo treats dreams as a rehearsal space for grief. Stevie and Elliot translate fear, guilt, and nostalgia into quests they can undertake together. Their hope may be magic driven, but it reads as honest because we watch them learn what family means when life refuses to stay still. By the end, the commentary shifts from frantic wish making to steadier acceptance. Even if life changes, they do not have to lose each other. It is predictable, yes, but it is also purposefully accessible for younger audiences and tender enough to land with adults as well.
By rooting wild invention in honest feeling, Woo makes a family film that feels both playful and true. It is brisk, it is accessible, and it leaves room for gentleness. Younger viewers will delight in the candy-colored chaos while adults will recognize the ache beneath the wish. So every narrative beat won’t land depending on who’s watching. but the craft, performances, and emotional clarity do. In Your Dreams is bright, kind, and sturdily made, the rare kid-forward adventure that respects what children know when the thing that is most precious to them is about to fall apart.
The film also treats Stevie and Elliot’s biracial family as a matter of fact. It is never a plot engine, and that normalcy is the point. The everyday textures of who they are simply live on screen, which makes the story feel more contemporary and inclusive without calling attention to itself. Because every family has its own thing they are dealing with. By spotlighting these issues, we can see how this is an emotionally resonating story that has a few cultural specifities that don’t call attention to themselves unless one points them out.
In the end, In Your Dreams works because it respects how kids feel their way through uncertainty. The movie carries a light touch, but it understands the weight of big emotions and the comfort of imagination. Sure, it tries to make some room for adults to enjoy it with a scene where Dad takes Stevie and Elliot to a pizza parlor that plays “Don’t You Wish Your Pizza Was Hot Like Me” — a riff on The Pussycat Dolls’ Don’t Cha — but it doesn’t quite connect as it should So while the film has a simple story, it leaves room for families to talk about fear, change, and love long after the credits roll.
In Your Dreams will have a limited theatrical release on November 7, 2025, and is followed by its streaming debut exclusively on Netflix on November 14, 2025.
7.5/10
