Rather good low-budget SF film from Mexico, the debut feature of Alex Rivera. It does show it’s budget in the CG effects (think mid-90s TV level), but for the most part makes the best of it.
No stunningly original ideas (1 part Matrix, one part Minority Report, and so on…), and the themes/subtext are pretty obvious - Mexico/US relations, migrant workers and the exploitation thereof, water rights - but the story itself carries along quite well. It doesn’t attempt to create a ‘futuristic’ future, instead focussing on the depressed rural areas and Tijuana slums of a near-future Mexico cut off from the US. Instead of migrants, the country supplies the US with workers through the ’sleep dealers’ of the title: factories where workers are plugged in and remotely connected to robots in the States. Of course, spend too much time plugged in (as workers desperate for extra cash often are), and bad things happen.
This particular theme is eventually downplayed - possibly the movie couldn’t address the larger issue on this scale of film. Instead, it focusses on the connections between three characters - the young man who has to come to the city to work when his father is killed by the company who owns the water, the city girl who meets him and sells her memories of him even as she falls for him, and the remote fighter pilot responsible for his father’s death. It’s this third character that leads to the rather weak ending, as he tracks down the young man in order to apologise and try to make amends. This leads to rather forced (and rushed) attempt at a Hollywood ending, and although the film is explicit in saying not everything is resolved, it remains unconvincing.
It’s a shame, because the set-up is convincing and atmospheric, and the leads are sympathetic if a little two-dimensional. It’s always good to see SF films from outside Hollywood - there’s plenty of horror and fantasy (to whatever degree), but far less straight up SF.
Posted on 26th June, 2008 in media and tagged with cg, eiff, Mexico, sf, Sleep Dealer.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival opened it’s box office today, so I spent my lunch booking my summer holiday. 22 films, fairly miscellaneous - I’m now going to spend the next month paranoid that I’ve made the wrong choices.
That’s partly a consequence of always trying to book at the earliest possible moment, in order to get tickets for the films I know I want to see (after the trauma of failing to see Serenity at the EIFF in 2005) - this year, the latest Pixar, WALL-E (Yay!). And unlike the last few years, booking online wasn’t even slightly traumatic (their server didn’t crash, and I got all the tickets I aimed for)
So, the 22 - actually 18 films, two of their animated short film collections and two real-live people events:
- 19/06/08, 17:15: McLaren Animation 1
- 19/06/08, 20:15: The Song of Sparrows
- 21/06/08, 15:00: Tiramisu
- 21/06/08, 18:45: Stone of Destiny
- 22/06/08, 14:00: Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation
- 22/06/08, 17:30: Standard Operating Procedure
- 22/06/08, 20:00: Strange Girls
- 23/06/08, 14:00: International Animation 1
- 23/06/08, 17:15: Bananaz
- 23/06/08, 19:15: Warsaw Dark
- 24/06/08, 19:00: The Surprise Movie
- 25/06/08, 17:30: Ray Harryhausen: In Person
- 25/06/08, 19:40: Dreams with Sharp Teeth
- 26/06/08, 15:00: Milky Way Liberation Front
- 26/06/08, 17:15: Sleep Dealer
- 26/06/08, 20:00: Idiots and Angels
- 27/06/08, 14:30: The Bride Wore Black
- 27/06/08, 17:15: Fear(s) of the Dark
- 27/06/08, 19:05: Encounters at the End of the World
- 28/06/08, 14:15: WALL-E
- 28/06/08, 16:45: The Fall
- 28/06/08, 21:30: Faintheart
Fewer than last year (there’s even a day I’m missing completely - but I’ve realised that I really can’t watch four films in one day). And the move from August to June means that, with my daily commute to the festival, I can’t see any of the later films, as the last train out is at 11.30pm. The only film that risks leaving me stranded in Edinburgh at midnight if the closing film, Faintheart, but it’s about battle re-enactors, so how could I resist?
I’ll go through my rationale for my choices nearer the time (or, not now), but did I mention WALL-E? Yay! (Pixar-induced glee…)
Posted on 9th May, 2008 in media and tagged with Bananaz, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, eiff, Encounters at the End of the World, Faintheart, Fear(s) of the Dark, gratuitous Joss Whedon reference, Idiots and Angels, International Animation, McLaren Animation, Milky Way Liberation Front, Pixar rocks, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Deakins, Seamus McGarvey, Sleep Dealer, Standard Operating Procedure, Stone of Destiny, Strange Girls, The Bride Wore Black, The Fall, The Song of Sparrows, The Surprise Movie, Tiramisu, WALL-E, Warsaw Dark, yay!.
