Video Review

Light Sleeper (1993)

MPAA Rating: R
Reviewed by Ty Burr | Feb 26, 1993
EW's GRADE
C

Details Movie Rated: R; Genre: Drama; With: Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon; Distributor: Fine Line Features

Despite an impressively brooding, end-of-the-party tone, Paul Schrader's tale of a coke runner's crisis of spirit isn't the transcendental experience it's intended to be. Actually, Light Sleeper is little more than a stylized, upscale rewrite of Schrader's own 1976 script for Taxi Driver. Strong, sympathetic performances from Dafoe, Sarandon, Dana Delaney, and Jane Adams are reasons to rent, but the fake Springsteen moanings on the soundtrack (courtesy of the Call's Michael Been) pretty much ruin any chance that you might take this seriously. C

Originally posted Feb 26, 1993 Published in issue #159 Feb 26, 1993 Order article reprints