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Sleeping Beauty

Play trailer Poster for Sleeping Beauty 2011 1h 41m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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48% Tomatometer 97 Reviews 32% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
A college student (Emily Browning) becomes a niche sex worker for a high-end brothel where customers pay to fondle her while she sleeps.
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Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

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Critics Consensus

Sleeping Beauty's provocative premise and luminous art design is hampered by a clinical, remote presentation, delivering boredom and shock in equal measure.

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Critics Reviews

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Sophie Mayer Sight & Sound 07/09/2018
Sleeping Beauty aspires to create a... haunted disconnect between Lucy's presentation and her subjectivity. Yet Leigh isn't able to muster a cinematic equivalent of a first-person narration that would convey Lucy's interiority to the viewer. Go to Full Review
Nicolas Rapold Film Comment Magazine 07/01/2013
Even if the film's final chapter seems far too on point, if not glib, the filmmaker continues to mine complicated psychological terrain with a clear-eyed stringency. Go to Full Review
Laura Kern Film Comment Magazine 06/20/2013
She spends much of the movie baring her fascinatingly underdeveloped body; her vagina is her temple. There's no graphic sex, but its intimations are anything but sexy. Go to Full Review
Diego Batlle Otroscines.com 10/04/2022
5/10
... Too calculated, precious, and artificial to be captivating. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Amie Simon Three Imaginary Girls 03/04/2019
While Beauty is prettily composed and the acting was just fine, the overall effect left me feeling pretty empty. Go to Full Review
Steve Erickson Gay City News 03/03/2018
[Director Julia] Leigh shows great confidence as a visual stylist and director of actors. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Alain E @AlainE May 13 Very good and utterly pessimistic. A young university student has several jobs including waitressing and shop girl. Then she finds herself getting occasional gigs with a company that supplies young female bodies in various states of nakedness, as decoration during different social functions of affluent people. The final stage of her process is she gets anesthesized in the nude and sleeps in a bed while an older man can do with her body anything he wants except penetrative sex. One of her “clients “ chooses to commit suicide lying in the bed next to her. He is not the first character in the movie to choose this exit. As I said, strong positive vibes. There is depiction of nudity throughout the story, but I would not call it titillating. If someone gets sexually excited watching this movie, that person needs psychiatric evaluation. See more L S Apr 10 Between the long and lingering scenes and Emily Browning's muted but committed performance, there is much left unsaid and an ever-present sense of even more beneath the surface of this meticulous, unsettling masterpiece. See more Susan W Mar 15 I watched this movie several times because it haunted me. It doesn't hand you the message, and you probably won't get it if you haven't realized at some point that you have been surpressing trauma and grief and moving like a sleep walker through your life, numbing yourself with careless choices. The main character seems to have no support, friends, family except for one person, who is the only person she shows attachment to, and is more broken than she is. She remains detached because she's practiced it, long before we see this part of her story, to protect herself from feeling the pain. See more Mei H Feb 16 I just love Emily! But the movie is slow paced, not a very engaging story. See more Sean M Jan 14 Boring and utterly disturbing film where nothing is ever explained. Tries to be profound, but isn’t worth the time investment. See more 07/10/2023 Where do I start….. I just don’t know but I will say that the acting is sub par at best, like everyone is doing it against their will and dosed up on lithium and antipsychotics…. Not to mention the final scene…. A less believable breakdown I’ve not seen ever! See more Read all reviews
Sleeping Beauty

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Movie Info

Synopsis A college student (Emily Browning) becomes a niche sex worker for a high-end brothel where customers pay to fondle her while she sleeps.
Director
Julia Leigh
Producer
Jessica Brentnall
Screenwriter
Julia Leigh
Distributor
IFC Films
Production Co
September Films
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 2, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 19, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$34.6K
Runtime
1h 41m
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