4/11/2021 0 Comments Sleepless Indie Film Full Movie
We watch Barry and Gem shop for toys, so he can pack them into a box of love he can send to the only clue he has of Jasons whereabouts: an address in Canada whose accuracy he cannot even verify.While contenders for the nickname in other continents are havens of endless leisure and nightlife and luxury, Manila (or Cebu or Bacolod) are inhabited by night dwellers who forgo sleep not out of choice, but out of necessity.Sleepless, an entry to the 2015 QCinema (Quezon City) Film Festival, is ambivalent about the call center industry.
It is tempting for a film with such a premise to be an echo chamber of critical sociopolitical sentiments: that this outsourcing industry disadvantages our nation in a neo-imperialist world order, that it enslaves its workers under alienating working conditions, et cetera, et cetera. ![]() Friends and family are pressuring her to leave the call center and find a more prestigious job, but she simply says, Masaya pa naman ako. Im still happy with my job.) With her credentials and the connections of her friends, it is clear that she could easily find a more regular job; but she is determined to stay, and we are invited to find out what motivates her so. Gem, quite the good performer in the company, is assigned to be his training buddy. They discover they are apartment neighbors, and they soon become partners in crime. The two find solace in a convenience storethose 24-by-7 establishments loyally visited by night shift employees on break. Over steaming cups of instant noodles, they imagine their weapons of choice for a zombie apocalypse. The comedy is welcome but never excessive; it is as if the films sense of humor is itself tired and sleepy. Early in the film, Gem and Barry are sleepyheads, wasting away their nights awake on their beds; at work, they spend their breaks with heads on desks, always chasing after the sleep they cannot get at night. They discover that there is warmth in its cold streets, especially if one has someone to navigate it with. Sleep eludes them, so in their wakefulness they try to escape life. They find joy in each others friendship: they try out skateboarding; they hang out at rooftops, convenience stores, and the neighborhood pares restaurant; they watch other people talking and imagine what goes on in the conversations they cannot hear. The film, following the cue of the dysfunctional light bulb in Gems bathroom, is a story about brokenness. At the pares joint with Barry, she looks at all the other couples dining and tells Barry that they are all cheaters. She thinks there is a polygamous gene, that all men are naturally unfaithful. ![]() Vince treats her mostly like a precious, pretty object to show off when he goes to fine restaurants and art galleries. Gem mentions to Barry that she does not like her name, that it is too precious and she deserves something more ordinary.) Once, lonely and sleepless while lying on her bed, Gem rings Vinces phone to no avail; here she is, a call center agent who spends her days selling services to faceless people halfway across the world, but in her loneliest moments her own phone is useless and uncomforting. They stare at a canvas of meaningless geometric lines; Vince plays art professor, and tells Gem to appreciate the depth of impressions that the piece evokes. She resists, saying that she prefers the clear, familiar, and plainly comprehensible. The camera pans to Gem, splendid in her fashionable dress, but surrounded by gallery pieces in the frame, some of which portray human eyessuggesting her place in Vinces world, which is to be just another artwork, just another beautiful but powerless object to gaze at. These are art pieces of the clear, familiar, comprehensible variety that Gem appreciates. But Sleepless is not a romance and this is not a plot device to nudge Gems heart and make her fall for Barry; the drawings instead lead Barry to reveal his own brokenness.
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