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

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 of plausible evolutions of current technology with a believable if not pleasant feel for how these changes will fit into our world.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 19, 2015

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

what you'll be left with after seeing Sleep Dealer is not a collection of cool scenes so much as a collection of compelling questions about where our world is headed

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2009

Made on the cheap compared to Hollywood flicks, this thrillingly original and heartfelt Mexican film is a truly human story about the impact of technology on individuals and on society.

| Sep 8, 2009

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.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 11, 2009

Sleep Dealer is reminiscent of a Philip K. Dick dystopia that might actually read better than it looks here, with average acting, slightly incoherent plotting and cheap special effects.

| Jul 24, 2009

Sleep Dealer is flawed, but still vibrant and inventive. Whether he finds larger budgets or keeps doing movie like this, Rivera is definitely a filmmaker to follow.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 19, 2009

I'm glad to have science fiction back in the forefront in 2009 but that doesn't mean they're all going to work. Consider Sleep Dealer a near-miss.

| Jun 6, 2009

Alex Rivera's overstuffed but intriguing feature debut, Sleep Dealer, takes a speculative leap into Tijuana's near future, imagining the next evolution of cheap labor.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 5, 2009

Clearly, Rivera knows one of the great gifts of the sci-fi genre. An uncanny world invites new ways of seeing. It offers new chances to ask the hard -- and too often, hardened -- questions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 5, 2009

The combination of rusty amateurism, future technology, and clear-and-present politics creates a trippy time-space kick: This dusty little movie feels like yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 14, 2009

Writer-director Alex Rivera crafts a smart, lean and engaging science fiction opus that proves you only need a little money if you have a lot of ideas.

| Apr 17, 2009

Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, Sleep Dealer is a welcome surprise.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2009

Sleep Dealer is an unusually thoughtful science fiction film, using the speculative energy of the genre to explore some troubling and complex contemporary issues.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2009

Occasionally shaky effects are the biggest drawback in a mostly smart sci-fi cautionary tale.

| Original Score: B | Apr 16, 2009

A jumbled vision ... too many predictable lines like, 'Sometimes you control the machine, and sometimes the machine controls you.'

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 16, 2009

This inventive indie sci-fi movie has plenty of big ideas to make up for its small budget.

| Apr 16, 2009