Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

PodBill Just what I expected

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

allyse67-234-997100 I had read about this film years before I actually saw it. The write up was intriguing enough that I kept it and when I saw the film, I understood why the reviewer said it was not to be missed. As society grows more and more tech-reliant, people become more and more isolated while still being "connected". This movie explores how little we might understand about what and who is really behind the things we enjoy and how little we may truly know about what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. Poignant, moving, and completely unforgettable.

fraser-simons Sleep dealer. I really, really liked this movie!I found it very underrated and really liked seeing cyberpunk from another country. In this case, a futuristic Mexico utilizes technology depriving the general population of a natural and organic lifestyle. It starts out in a rural setting where the only tech shown is used to oppressive the general population. As far as we can tell, anyways. The protagonist Memo, seeks out tech though despite the warnings and stories of his father about how life was before, and primarily how much better things were. The plot really begins when the son accepts tech and uses it for its benefits. Like most cyberpunk, most of the rest of the film goes into the downside of tech and the people in control of it. Spoilers! X X X X X X XWhen his choices get his father killed. He begins to go move against the system, as in the genre that always gets a loved one killed so it's not surprising. What IS surprising is that the protagonist in this case is a really relatable and more socially adjusted hero than most of the genre. In fact, everyone else isn't because of technology - but we don't learn about that until later. To reinforce the rural pastiche combined with Mexican culture I really enjoyed that cyberpunk music basically doesn't exist in the movie at all. It makes it feel authentic, different, and genuinely new. The theme can ultimately be boiled down to this but there's some great sub themes/plots at work as well:"Sometimes you control the machine and sometimes the machine controls you"Organic seemed to be a pretty warm colour pallet with technology contrasting it. There appeared to be a colour pallet for each character, however it may have been different themes as I only noticed towards the end. So rather than specifically each character it may have been something else but I noticed when it switched for each character so, not positive. It seemed to be:Green for Rudy Blue for memo And red for the LuzThis is where things got even more interesting as the story diverges from just Memo to weave a narrative that interacts with Memo and eventually, all of them. He moves from his small town to the big city to make money and send it home. He needs to support his family now. Slowly the other narratives work their way in, this worked only somewhat for Rudy, and pretty well for Luz and Memo. Here in the city the theme is really reinforced by Luz who's all but swallowed by the city by now. In order to get by the main piece of tech is introduced: people sell their memories "online". She's trying to weave narratives in order to get by, and when she meets Memo their initial relationship is there only so she can sell the memories so she can get by. Of course this eventually leads to drama but during which Luz is has a great line:"What was it like to work with something so...real?"She's talking about Memo working the earth with his father, a really foreign concept to many people nowadays, including me. But in the movie it's even more of a crazy concept as the other way people get by is by hooking themselves up to a device that lets them do jobs in America via robots. It's commentary on foreign workers in America and what that could possibly lead to is really interesting and meshed well with the overall theme at play. Memo utilizes this technology despite that he quickly realizes it isn't good for him but he makes money and sends it back home anyways. It turns out that Luz's tech is robbing her of her memories because just like social media now, she only finds them valuable if people pay for them and validate them. And Memo, his tech is robbing him of his humanity and slowly, his life. He has to modify his body to use the tech and he begins to understand why the factories are called sleep dealers after he's sucked into the same cycle everyone else is in the city. How they decide to fight the system is both overt and subtle. I really liked this line from it where Memo says: "What happened to the river was happening to me" I'm not going to spoil the meaning but I really liked that comparison and what they do to take back some control. It all creates a very satisfying loop that eventually ties back into a really organic story. It was very surprising because it's not really rated that well at all. I love seeing cyberpunk from other lens's and this futuristic, organic tale of Mexico really hit all my buttons. It doesn't have cheap production values either. Check it out!

billcr12 Sleep Dealer is a science fiction film. Memo works in a factory but tells his story through flashbacks. His father owned a farm which shut down due to a dam built nearby. Memo becomes a hacker and is able to break into a military computer system. He intercepts communications and is almost caught. A drone detects him and attacks their trailer nearby, killing his father. He takes a bus to Tijuana and meets Luz, who has nodes on her wrist which taps into a network. She uploads memories to a trading company, and she tells him how to get the nodes on the black market. Nemo is robbed and later has cyber sex with Luz and discovers that she is selling memories of him to the network. While online, he finds Ramirez, the pilot of the drone that killed his father, and they partner up to take on the evil global government. Sleep Dealer is sci-fi with a conscience; the story is good, with solid acting. Alex Rivera had previously made documentaries detailing the struggles of immigrants. He shows promise as s director and I look forward to his next movie.

chicagopoetry Sleep Dealer is an imaginative little movie that makes the best out of a low budget to tell a futuristic story in which people sell their memories and you can be hooked up to a computer to operate a machine somewhere in another country for pay. The plot is very slow moving (no action sequences or heavy suspense) and involves a guy whose father was killed by a drone, a girl who befriends the guy in order to record and sell memories of him to another guy who turns out to be the virtual reality pilot of the drone that killed the guy's father. Without giving away what happens at the end, that's about it. The pace of Sleep Dealer is steady and hypnotic with the help of some minimalist music and tricky lighting. I watched it straight through without getting bored but it didn't excite much in me either. For all of its mind bending concepts it's really just a mood piece and perhaps a character study though the characters are sort of one dimensional. It's a pretty good weird little movie though, definitely a good start to Alex Rivera's Directoral career.