About

A thematic companion piece to Schrader’s American Gigolo 1980 – two films about men caught up in murder investigations while offering illicit services to wealthy clientele in an American metropolis – Paul Schrader’s moody drama finds drug dealer John LeTour (Willem Dafoe) contemplating going straight after his long-time supplier Ann (Susan Sarandon) decides to leave the business.

An interior-minded “man in a room” film, Light Sleeper is a powerful portrait of loneliness, insomnia and addiction. LeTour seeks to leave his way of life by reconnecting with his former girlfriend Marianne (Dana Delany) but he struggles to escape the poisonous trails of his work and past sins. Dafoe and Sarandon give sensational performances as two characters who have come to realise any semblance of glamour their lives had has long faded, with a new round of addicts and dealers (such as the ones played here by Sam Rockwell and David Spade) ready to replace them.

M | Medium level coarse language, Violence, Drug use