Sleep Dealer

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I got this ages ago but never got around to watching it. One of the indi films I read a review of a few years back that sounded like it would appeal to me. I was right to.

It's hard to pull off sci-fi with no budget. It usually requires some creative thinking. That is certainly the case with this little mexican film about workers that can get jobs in the U.S. without illegally crossing the border by plugging into computers and working drones by remote.

This is essentially a drama of atonement and a coming of age story. The sci-fi elements are low tech and believable. Some of the cg effects aren't great but most of the practical stuff works really well.

There are some cool ideas about recording and selling your memories, almost like the next evolution of Facebook, and being about to work anywhere in the world via drones and how this leads to strange connections with people on the other side of the country.

It's a very simple story where the focus is firmly on character and drama not the sci-fi, which is why it works. The parts that don't flow as smoothly are the very few scenes where the focus shifts to the tech and special effects that were just a little bit more ambitions than they probably had time or budget for.

Fun fact: This is the first film i've watched entirely in a bath.