'Sleep Dealer' review

Luis Fernando (Credit: Maya Entertainment)

Why don't movies about the future ever suggest that life gets better? In "Sleep Dealer," international borders are sealed and water is scarce. To support his family after his father's death, Memo (Luis Fernando Pena) takes a job in a place that allows people to perform tasks in America, such as construction and child care, via virtual reality connections in Tijuana. Memo also meets Luz (Leonor Varela), who's secretly using a program called TruNode to sell her memories of her time with Memo on the Internet.

The buzz: Director/co-writer Alex Rivera was nominated for Best First Feature at last year's Independent Spirit Awards. That says something, but sometimes nothing more than, "Nice job; we have faith you'll do better next time."

The verdict: Rivera explores slivers of several worthwhile ideas, from aqua-terrorism to the outsourcing of jobs. But failing to address how the world slid into such tumultuous circumstances deflates any commentary "Sleep Dealer" tries to make about contemporary society. (Observations about the literal and figurative distance between people are feeble at best.) What's left is a jumbled vision with too much emphasis on the relationship between Memo and Luz and too many predictable lines like, "Sometimes you control the machine, and sometimes the machine controls you."

Did you know? Memo says his place of employment is dubbed the "sleep dealer" because if you work for long enough you collapse. Surely there are no other jobs out there like that, right?

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