Sleep Dealer

Name: Sleep Dealer
Genre: Sci-Fi
Released: April 17, 2009
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 59
Cast: Jacob Vargas, Leonor Varela, Luis Fernando Peña

2009

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Mixed or average reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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6.8

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6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Sleep Dealer

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Movie Details & Credits

Maya Entertainment | Release Date: April 17, 2009 | PG-13

Starring: Jacob Vargas, Leonor Varela, Luis Fernando Peña

Summary: In the near future, the world is divided by closed borders, but connected by a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo Cruz lives with his parents and his brother in the small, dusty village of Santa Ana del Rio, in Mexico. Santa Ana is an isolated farming community, the kind of place that seems frozen in time --In the near future, the world is divided by closed borders, but connected by a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo Cruz lives with his parents and his brother in the small, dusty village of Santa Ana del Rio, in Mexico. Santa Ana is an isolated farming community, the kind of place that seems frozen in time -- except for the hi-tech, militarized dam that was built by a corporation, and now controls Santa Ana's water supply. Memo couldn't care less about Santa Ana. He loves technology, and dreams of leaving his small pueblo and finding work in the hi-tech factories in the big cities in the north. One night, while using his homemade radio, Memo stumbles across something he's never heard before the communications of the security forces that are constantly patrolling the area around his village, to protect the dam from 'Aqua-Terrorists.' Unknown to him, or his family, Memo is now under the crosshairs. Security agents at the water company's headquarters in the United States, have spotted Memo's radio intercept, and conclude that it's a threat. Memo is then forced to realize his dream of leaving Santa Ana in the worst possible way when his homemade radio - and his house - are destroyed in a reckless remote-control bombing. (Maya Entertainment)… Expand

Director: Alex Rivera

Genre(s): Sci-Fi

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 90 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

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. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Far more worth seeing than most of what's out there. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Justin Chang

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. Read full review

Joe Neumaier

Haunting ideas and efficient storytelling, but director-cowriter Alex Rivera needed to fine-tune a bit more. Read full review

Aaron Hillis

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

Diezmartinez

Sep 1, 2010

Con todos los defectos que uno quiera encontrarle, el debut fÃlmico de Rivera es una notable pelÃcula de ciencia ficciÃ³n, cuyas ideas, inquietantemente posibles y verosÃmilaes, es con mucho lo mejor de una cinta a la que le faltÃ³Con todos los defectos que uno quiera encontrarle, el debut fÃlmico de Rivera es una notable pelÃcula de ciencia ficciÃ³n, cuyas ideas, inquietantemente posibles y verosÃmilaes, es con mucho lo mejor de una cinta a la que le faltÃ³ algo de presupuesto -aunque esto es lo menos importante- y una direcciÃ³n mÃ¡s disciplinada y funcional por parte de Rivera, que cae a ratos en el vicio de sobre-editar las conversaciones de los personajes. Sin embargo, insisto, su idea de un futuro cercano en el que los Estados Unidos tienen el trabajo de los mexicanos sin tener a los mexicanos en su territorio, tiene una fuerza irÃ³nico/polÃtica mÃ¡s grande que los obvios mensajes de resistencia antiglobalizaciÃ³n que tambiÃ©n vehicula, de una forma ingenua, la propia pelÃcula.… Expand

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caroleg

Jun 22, 2009

It's always interesting but the parts don't come together or add up.

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