TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Predrag This is a pretty good movie about a drug dealer with a conscience. I enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but felt that the script and story-line struggled at points. In one instance, Dafoe's character relates "White drugs for white people". Also, Dana Delaney puts in a good performance but definitely second to Dafoe's - her performance is not quite complete, and I was left feeling as though the film just had that extra something missing.This is a brilliant film. The raw, humane, unvarnished look at the life of a mid level drug dealer in Manhattan is uniquely captivating, and Willem Defoe plays the part to perfection. The story itself is underwhelming, common, real. The protagonist's struggles through life are much like anyone else's. Anyone else's in New York, at least. But the context of his life, the rhythms of it, are very different. The random encounters with love and violence touch him as arbitrarily as they touch each of us, and he reacts to them with the same confusion, elation, and pain. This is the film's genius, and it allows an unusually close emotional bond to develop between the protagonist and the audience.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

JasparLamarCrabb Paul Schrader has had a spotty career as a director but LIGHT SLEEPER may very well be his best. Willem Dafoe proves he's incapable of giving a bad performance as a drug dealer looking to get out. Dafoe is a classic Schrader hero...an insider trying to become an outsider while keeping his self-respect intact...a theme prevalent in most Schrader films (AMERICAN GIGOLO, LIGHT OF DAY). Downbeat to be sure given its subject matter, but LIGHT SLEEPER has a lot to offer. First and foremost is the acting. Not only does Dafoe excel, but Susan Sarandon is great as a deceptively friendly pusher and the supporting cast is dynamite - David Spade, Dana Delaney (as Dafoe's patient love interest), MaryBeth Hurt, and best of all, singer-songwriter Paul Jabara as an out-of-control junkie. A terrific film.

kelp30 I attended a screening of "Light Sleeper," where Paul Schrader, after the screening, stood up and said something to the tune of, "Wow. No wonder that movie didn't do well at the box office." When I think about other Schrader movies, I can appreciate the thought, but movies he's written or directed (see "Last Temptation," "Light of Day," et cetera), one can't help but notice the similarities... It seems Paul can't get past his mid-western, Christian Reformed upbringing. Instead of getting a little therapy to deal with whatever ghosts or saints or demons lay waste in his psyche, he's working it out on film... And somehow, I'm getting charged for it.OK. I will admit, Light Sleeper has great performances by Delaney, Dafoe, and Sarandon.... but if I had their character's lives, I couldn't sleep either.Five cents, Please.

stuhh2001 Like "Prince Of The City", this is another great drug movie, with the greatest set ever built for a movie, New York City. Very few people saw "Prince", and I'll wager fewer saw this one. It has a cast of New York stage actors, who make the usual run of Hollywood anorexic barbie dolls, and Sunset Strip would be tough guys, look exactly like what they are, refugees from some "hysterical" wise cracking sit-com. I have to mention each one of these artists because they're so incredibly good. Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany (what a performance), David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt, Jane Adams(the looney sister from "Happiness"), David Spade, and last, but certainly not least Victor Garber. Paul Schrader wrote and directed, and if he never does another production, his mother can know that she gave birth to a major cinematic artist. The story can impress people as very hokey. Dafoe is a coke pusher. But he's very sensitive and loving, and is looking for a "better life". He's so guilt ridden as a pusher, he can hardly sleep. Oh, give me a break. But wait. With Dafoe I bought it completely. I was even rooting for him to get back with his former junkie lover Dana Delany. Delany and Susan Sarandon give major performances, Sarandon as a major supplier also looking to go straight as a cosmetic maven. This is a major manual on acting....look, learn, and enjoy.