Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Sleep Dealer

Play trailer Poster for Sleep Dealer PG-13 Released Apr 17, 2009 1h 29m Sci-Fi Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
73% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
Memo (Luis Fernando Peña) is a hacker living an impoverished existence in the degraded Mexico of the future. Upon detecting his hacking activities, the military attacks his home. Memo escapes to Tijuana, where he becomes involved with Luz (Leonor Varela), a journalist who plugs her body into the Internet and sells her memories for others to download. When Luz takes on a mysterious assignment and Memo lands a high-tech factory job, they descend into a cyber-nightmare and discover a deadly truth.

Where to Watch

Sleep Dealer

Sleep Dealer

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Sleep Dealer's depth and energy are almost enough to overcome a shaky screenplay and pedestrian acting.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (33) Critics Reviews
Ben Kenigsberg Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Jordan Hoffman UGO This Sundance hit takes the "jacking in" premise we've seen in everything from Neuromancer to eXistenZ and looks at it from the point of view of third world migrant workers. Rated: A- Aug 11, 2009 Full Review Alejandro Hirsch Saed PopMatters Sleep Dealer seems to argue that, through storytelling, multicultural collaboration, and spectacular action, even in the most extreme cases, the border is still an imaginary space that can be broken. Sep 12, 2022 Full Review Jorge (JJ) Negrete Butaca Ancha An important movie with a lot of deep themes and spearpoint for the new Mexican sci-fi. [Full review in Spanish] Sep 17, 2015 Full Review Mark R. Leeper Mark Leeper's Reviews full of plausible evolutions of current technology with a believable if not pleasant feel for how these changes will fit into our world. Rated: 9/10 Mar 19, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (312) audience reviews
Valeria O I would rather sleep than watch this movie. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 11/04/24 Full Review Audience Member I am not a big fan of Mexican movies. But this one passed my time. Other than few cheesy special effects and illogical story line, it worth to watch. It will pass your time. That's all. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Considering that it came out long before America's recent hard right turn toward nativism, the film is a searing and uncannily prescient indictment of US-Mexico relations, from exploitation of poor laborers to inhospitality at the border. Filmed on the sparsest of budgets, the resulting austere aesthetic aptly mirrors the desolation of both the Oaxacan landscape and the prospects of its impoverished inhabitants, while in turn proving that really great science fiction relies on philosophical ideas, not special effects or rigorous technological authenticity. Yet while the financial constraints may have resulted in rather unrealistic visuals, the simplicity of the production provides a portentious vision of deeper socio-economic truths, recognizing well ahead of public consciousness (at least within the US and Hollywood) the looming menace of water scarcity, ecoterrorists, outsourced labor thanks to the technology, precariousness at the southern border—including the threat of its closing and the building of a wall that looks more like an ineffective fence—the use of drones to serve the imperialist interest of capitalism, cheered on by jingoistic media, and so on. This dystopian prophecy is disturbing not because of what seems strange, like the surreal sequences of workers jacked-in to their machinery, making love and buildings with wires extending in and out of their erogenous nodes like a McLuhanite nightmare (or better still: McLuhanightmare), but because, barely a decade later, it all seems so familiar. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member I at first was not willing to watch it but then I saw who the main actor was and I honestly like his work. When I saw it, of course the low budget cgi or animations were just out of place but it still helps with the story. If only the film was remade or made in a more recent year where better tech then those fails could be opposite. Otherwise this was a really good film, original indeed. Wished I was part of the crew! :D Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member A dystopian future that is the dream of some GOP politics in USA. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member It's basically The Matrix. Memo and Neo. Come on, even I could have been more creative. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Sleep Dealer

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

The Day the Earth Stood Still 21% 27% The Day the Earth Stood Still Watchlist TRAILER for The Day the Earth Stood Still A Sound of Thunder 6% 18% A Sound of Thunder Watchlist The 6th Day 40% 33% The 6th Day Watchlist TRAILER for The 6th Day Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace 18% 12% Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace Watchlist Gattaca 82% 87% Gattaca Watchlist TRAILER for Gattaca Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Memo (Luis Fernando Peña) is a hacker living an impoverished existence in the degraded Mexico of the future. Upon detecting his hacking activities, the military attacks his home. Memo escapes to Tijuana, where he becomes involved with Luz (Leonor Varela), a journalist who plugs her body into the Internet and sells her memories for others to download. When Luz takes on a mysterious assignment and Memo lands a high-tech factory job, they descend into a cyber-nightmare and discover a deadly truth.
Director
Alex Rivera
Producer
Anthony Bregman
Screenwriter
Alex Rivera, David Riker
Distributor
Maya Releasing
Rating
PG-13 (Sexuality|Some Violence)
Genre
Sci-Fi
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 17, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$75.7K
Runtime
1h 29m
Most Popular at Home Now