It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The plot: A Mexican laborer, falsely targeted by the USA as a terrorist, goes to work for a "sleep factory", where he remotely operates robots for American corporations.Sleep Dealer is a return to classic cyperpunk, like the early novels of William Gibson. It's a very believable world, full of near-future tech that's both intriguing and disheartening. Like Gibson's leftist criticism back in the 1980s, it examines globalism, isolationism, nationalism, and imperialism. It never becomes anti-American, but it probably will offend some conservative Americans. Some of the ideas are really great, and I liked how the movie played with current technological and political trends. Hopefully, if the movie were made today, it'd be a little more optimistic, but I kind of doubt it.The biggest problem I had with Sleep Dealer was that it was so overt and explicit about its themes. Perhaps the director thought that these themes were too important to be coy about them. Regardless, it came across as a bit unsubtle and preachy. If you agree with the premises, you'll probably be pretty forgiving. Unfortunately, the acting isn't all that great, though it's good enough for a low budget, genre film. The special effects are a bit iffy, as well, but most people probably aren't expecting Avatar.As long as you're willing to overlook some faults, this is an enjoyable and socially conscious science fiction movie that anyone can enjoy, regardless of their nationality.

Based on the premise of labor without laborers. The usual Mexican preoccupations with El Norte are there, but nicely balanced and understated. No preaching.It depicts a future only a few minutes away from today. Mexicans work in Mexico controlling via the internet robots in the USA that do everything from construction to nannies. They use Waldo's plugged into their nervous system. But there is no surfeit of tech-speak. A peon from the arid interior comes to Tijuana at the now completely closed USA border to work in one of the implant factories. He meets a writer who sells stories, memories. The drone operator who killed the peon's father seeks him out through the writer.Understated and visually dark, but arresting and unpredictable.

I really don't know why this movie gets praised in the reviews and has a relatively high score. (5.9 at the time) Sure it's a low budget film and it's impressive to pull something like this off, chase your dreams and realize the movie you always wanted to make, but in my opinion it doesn't deserve a higher score than 3.First off the only interesting part of the movie is the future work issue and it should have focused on this a lot more. I don't know if i should blame the writing or the acting, but the love story and the other story string seem so forced it hurts. Also there isn't much tension between the characters. their development is very one dimensional and weak, just like the story overall. It was at no time thrilling, but rather boring. Which is the fault of the acting, writing, the general plot and the cutting which wasn't good either. Some scenes just don't fit or end too fast. After watching the making of i can also say that the idea just wasn't good enough or well thought out and that it felt like they had to stretch the movie to get this runtime.In the end i'd say portraying work in the future or general sci-fi is an approach that could be interesting, if it's done right.

Sleep Dealer is an imaginative little movie that makes the best out of a low budget to tell a futuristic story in which people sell their memories and you can be hooked up to a computer to operate a machine somewhere in another country for pay. The plot is very slow moving (no action sequences or heavy suspense) and involves a guy whose father was killed by a drone, a girl who befriends the guy in order to record and sell memories of him to another guy who turns out to be the virtual reality pilot of the drone that killed the guy's father. Without giving away what happens at the end, that's about it. The pace of Sleep Dealer is steady and hypnotic with the help of some minimalist music and tricky lighting. I watched it straight through without getting bored but it didn't excite much in me either. For all of its mind bending concepts it's really just a mood piece and perhaps a character study though the characters are sort of one dimensional. It's a pretty good weird little movie though, definitely a good start to Alex Rivera's Directoral career.