American filmmakers have a weakness for presenting a shoot-out as either the precursor of redemption or redemptive in itself; this film falls into the latter group.

| May 20, 2022

The cast is skilfully alert... and Schrader's vision is unencumbered either by sentiment or cynicism.

| Feb 28, 2021

Light Sleeper is emblematic of an era, and is recommended on that basis and on the excellent quality of it acting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

It's a failure perhaps, but an honorable failure. If it isn't saved by grace, it has many saving graces.

| Sep 9, 2014

With his deliberate speech patterns and haunted, reptilian good looks, Dafoe is an almost nobly sad presence at the center of the film. There's something wonderfully calm about his performance, and it holds Light Sleeper together.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

Dafoe completely inhabits the character, appearing in virtually every scene and developing a fascinating psychological profile.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

For all of Schrader's capacity for spectacular self-laceration and spiritual agony, Light Sleeper finds him able for the first time to express a certain peacefulness, and the effect is delicate and discreet.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2014

Crowd pleasing? No. Challenging? You bet.

| Sep 9, 2014

Susan Sarandon is so good as Dafoe's boss, and the dialogue is so literate for such a familiar story, that there's a lot to admire -- it's Schrader's best film -- as long as one can get past the transcendental claptrap.

| Sep 9, 2014

The movie is a small but absorbing mood piece, a canny insider's view of the life of a Manhattan drug dealer.

| Original Score: B | Sep 7, 2011

A superb Dafoe contributes crucially to the degree of success the film achieves.

| Mar 26, 2009

It does develop powerfully the themes of Schrader's earlier work and will not disappoint his fans.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 4, 2009

Schrader certainly has his finger on the pulse of the times, and the universally strong performances do ample justice to his sensitive ear for dialogue.

| Feb 9, 2006

At its best, Light Sleeper is merely theoretical. Most of the time, though, it is artificial and laughably unbelievable. Even the dark, gritty Manhattan locations don't add authenticity.

| May 20, 2003

Artistically self-indulgent, if beautifully acted, "Light Sleeper" isn't aimed at audiences with a hunger for conventional entertainment and upbeat endings -- for Schrader this is an improvement.

| Jan 1, 2000

"Sleeper" is wonderful, vintage fare from the man who scripted "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull," and directed his own screenplays for "American Gigolo," "Mishima" and others.

| Jan 1, 2000

In film after film, for year after year, Paul Schrader has been telling this story in one way or another, but never with more humanity than this time.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

For me, Light Sleeper comes the closest to capturing on film the ethos of Lou Reed's musical opus "Street Hassle," one of the most eloquent urban visions of our time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000