Review of Sleep Dealer

Sleep Dealer Hits Home

It’s not hard far fetched to imagine a world in which water is traded like oil and immigrant workers perform their labor from virtual factories across the closed border. This is the premise of Sleep Dealer, a new film by first-time director Alex Rivera set in the near future.

After the death of his father, Memo (played by Luis Fernando Peña) moves from his village in Santa Ana to Tijuana, where he finds work as a node worker. By plugging into his central nervous system, he is able to operate robots in America through a virtual network. With the help of Luz (played by Leonor Varela), a women he met on the bus; and Rudy (Jacob Vargas), the man who killed his father, Memo sets out to blow up the dam that withholds water from his family in Santa Ana, allowing them to once again farm the land.

This film presents a world where people sell memories and link up to each other to share intimate moments and it isn’t entirely unbelievable. In fact, after seeing Sleep Dealer, it is not difficult to fathom a world similar to this just around the bend. Touching on topics such as immigration policy and technology, this film is a warning of what’s to come. If we abandon the old ways for technology, we lose our humanism. This film suggests a delicate balance of past and future is necessary to keep the world alive and people connected in real life, rather just in a virtual sense.

Stylish and edgy, Sleep Dealer grabs you in and forces you to think. Though sluggish at times, it is definitely worth seeing.

Posted on 01/20/08 by: Mark Hammerschmidt 10:41 PM