Sugar (2009)
Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring Algenis Perez Soto, Michael Gaston
Release Date April 3rd, 2009
Published April 10th, 2009
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck make an exceptional team. Their work on the indie flick Half Nelson earned Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination not long ago. Now, they are back behind the camera for Sugar, a movie that is ostensibly about baseball but is far more thoughtful and observant than any sports movie you've likely ever seen.
Algenis Perez Soto stars in Sugar as Miguel 'Sugar' Santos, a 20 year old working his way through a Dominican Republic Baseball Factory. Many real life major league ball clubs have this kind of factory where Dominican boys as young as 14 begin training with hopes of some day getting the call to go to America.
Sugar is one of those young men who gets the call and finds himself first in Arizona and eventually in Bridgetown Iowa where stays on a vast farm, owned by a kindly couple who have made a habit of hosting foreign up and comers for the local minor league club, the Bridgetown Swing.
Though it centers on a ballplayer, Sugar is not necessarily a sports movie. It carries none of the cliche scenes of success and failure on the field. Each and every scene, baseball or not, are about revealing more about this character and his immersion into a world he never imagined.
Upping the ante on the drama is the fact that the star of Sugar is a first time, novice actor who just two years ago was an immigrant ballplayer hoping to work for the majors. Algenis Perez Soto is a bright eyed kid whose experience in real life minor league ball and Dominican factory prep ball no doubt prepared him to tell this story.
Having that experience and being able to communicate it on screen are two very different things. Just because he lived it doesn't mean he can compel us with it. That's where acting comes in and Soto proves himself a natural at that as well. In the biggest and most pleasant surprise of all, Algenis Perez Soto shows himself as a charismatic presence who compels us with ease. Our sympathies are with him from the opening scenes in the Dominican Republic to the open ended conclusion that doesn't so much resolve Sugar's story as give us a sense of a life in progress.
Observant, moving, empathetic and true, Sugar is a powerful piece of character based storytelling and an absolute must see picture.
