I suppose I should open by stating that writer/director Alex Rivera has a reach that far exceeds his grasp. The premise demanded that the USA be a futuristic utopia, keeping the best of the future’s tech advancements to itself. And maybe that’s what Rivera had in mind. But the America glimpsed in this movie looked pretty much exactly as it does now.
He obviously had big dreams about the details of this future world he created, though the effects in this movie show that he didn’t have the budget and/or CGI skill to really bring it to life. But what Rivera accomplishes with what he does have… holy shit.
The story is quite simply unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The movie is tightly crafted, the love subplot is very good and the cinematography is really impressive. The movie focused on a minimum of primary characters (due to the shoestring budget, no doubt), but they all brought something substantial to the table in terms of story relevance and new ideas to explore via sci-fi.
And brother, this movie explores a lot through sci-fi. Obviously, the first thing that anyone learns about this movie is that it deals with Mexican/American immigrant relations. This is done through the eponymous Sleep Dealer, which actually doesn’t take up a lot of screen time. Rather, most of the commentary appears to be about online social networks, particularly YouTube. There’s a good bit in there about conscience on the battlefield, which takes on a new dimension since these soldiers pilot their planes remotely without actually going into the war zone. This angle unfortunately isn’t really addressed until the very end of the movie, though it’s addressed in a novel and effective way that blends seamlessly with the social networking commentary. However, I still think that the Sleep Dealer was the most intriguing part of this movie and Rivera could definitely have delved into it a bit further than he did.
It’s almost like if Phillip K. Dick spent a few years in border Mexico and then wrote his version of “Slumdog Millionaire.” In fact, much like “Slumdog,” this movie’s real strength is in taking someone like yours truly and reminding him of just how pampered, ignorant and well-off he is. The movie deals with Mexico and its citizens with a sincerity that is truly stunning.
The ideas and skills presented in this movie (however limited by budget) absolutely warrant a recommendation.