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Mexico, United States · 2008
Rated PG-13 · 1h 30m
Director Alex Rivera
Starring Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas, Luis Fernando Peña, Metztli Adamina
Genre Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
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In a not-so-distant dystopian future, the border between Mexico and the United States is closed off. When Memo’s family falls victim to a drone attack, he travels north but cannot cross into the United States. Memo finds himself working in a digital factory that connects his body to a labor robot in America.
Science fiction easily lends itself to allegory, but while the dystopian near-future of co-writer/director Alex Rivera's feature debut focuses, admirably, on how globalization affects the third world, his ideas are as subtle as a light saber to the face.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The plot of Sleep Dealer is a bit thin, and the performances are earnest and dutiful. But there is sufficient ingenuity in the film’s main ideas to hold your attention, and the political implications of the allegorical story are at once obvious and subtle.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
Haunting ideas and efficient storytelling, but director-cowriter Alex Rivera needed to fine-tune a bit more.
Despite some clever virtual-reality concepts and projections about the next frontier of globalization, Alex Rivera's ambitious directing debut lacks the vision, or the budget, to pull off its fusion of sci-fi and aspirational saga.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, Sleep Dealer is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The freshness and ingenuity of this techno-thriller should spark a cult following among sci-fi fans at the very least, but the film could make inroads among cineastes, adult adventure-seekers and the Latino community as well.
Far more worth seeing than most of what's out there.
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Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Two women, both sex workers, form a deep friendship on the streets of Madrid.
Face your fear.
A high school teacher's unorthodox lesson on autocracy spirals out of control and causes students to turn against one another.
History may never repeat itself again.
You are not welcome here.
Part judge, part jury, all executioner.
On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a man, his dog, and an intelligent robot are on a quest for survival.