Sleep Dealer (2008)

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!

It's great to finally see a sci-fi that does global injustice right. Elysium was pretty good, but it doesn't capture the gritty realism the way Sleep Dealer did.This drama is effective because it hits close to the reality between US and Mexico. It takes that godawful situation and built a very interesting story intertwined with a technology that could one day exist. The combination of poverty with technology makes for some awesome cyberpunk.The CG is a bit on the crappy side, but I could overlook it because the movie was story driven. It didn't rely on special effects. The visuals that did work did awesomely. They helped build the tone and didn't function as cheap shortcut.Say adios to high budget garbage.

............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL This Mexican surprise is a real "SLEEPER" in every sense of the word! 9*, right up front, no ambivalence about this little gem! Lends a totally unexpected new dimension to the phrase "Hook Me Up"! Before I begin enumerating the list of great things DEALER has going for it, a word about the title: How many of you know some Spanish? Mine is on a par with my English: "Sleep Dealer". Weird translation! That would be "Traficante de SUENO"(Singular--BTW, can't render an "enyeh" here, sorry!) "Traficante de SUENOS"(Plural) should be "DREAM Dealer". That even sounds a lot better, doesn't it? I'm clueless as to why the misfire on the title, but that's about DEALER's only misstep! A Tremendous cinematic power courses through this DEALER's veins! during its 85 minutes of on-screen life! First, it's a genre bender. An interesting fusion of not-too-distant-future Sci-Fi, Suspense, Drama, Political Thriller and Still-Third-World-and-Definitely-NOT-Hollywood Foreign/Mexican! The storyline delivers some very convincing/ interesting 3rd world perspectives on globalization and exploitation, but devoid of soapbox style preaching. It simply presents events and lets them speak for themselves, in a "You draw your own conclusions" fashion. One truly surprising element was the AUDIO of DEALER. The quality of the sound and sound mixing was right up there with the very BEST U.S. films. ALL audio elements complimented the film perfectly, adding a very subtle, sophisticated level of highlighting of mood, texture and ambiance enhancement. DEALER also spins language like no other foreign film. Reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's NEW-SPEAK in Brave New World, which influenced A CLOCKWORK ORANGE some 30 plus years later, the dialog is brimming with the likes of COYOTEC; from Coyote, those who organize illegal border-crossings; and LIVE NODE GIRLS, for that ultimate "Hook Me Up" experience! 9*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!!!Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome! [email protected]

Why so bold, you may ask? Wasn't this just another one of those weak independent movies (and in Spanish to boot)? Well, no. I love sci-fi as anyone will tell you, and I especially love it when it really it just that. This is not Hollywood's version of sci-fi at all. Check out recent movies like "I Robot" and "Surrogates" for that stuff. This is more in the vein of "Blade Runner"... and no I'm not the first reviewer to point this out. The movie itself is based on a potential future possibility, even something that is starting to happen as I speak.The main theme of the movie is loss. The water that used to be free: lost. One's privacy in the hands of people we merely speak to: lost. Dignity: lost. The hope for those living beyond the borders of the United States that they may one day live there freely: lost.To me, these things are already happening, in the works, or very likely/possible. That makes this movie true sci-fi. Not that there is the merest glimmer of a robot, or that people are plugging themselves into computers.A rare treat for true sci-fi enthusiasts.