Sugar (2008)

Sugar (2008)

Written and Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden

           

            This movie completely surprised me and in such a way that it now comes highly recommended.  What I thought would be an inspirational sports drama soon became an introspective look at hope, lost dreams, desire, and the cruelty inherent in “The American Dream.”

            Having seen Half Nelson, I was already anticipating the follow-up from Boden and Fleck.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, Half Nelson is little more than a masterpiece, and the performance that Ryan Gosling delivered was nothing short of God-like.  The fact that he didn’t win an Oscar for it remains to this day a mystery to me.  Another thing that defies logic is the fact that he followed it up with Fracture, a mediocre movie at best, and then followed it up with Lars and the Real Girl, yet another mind-blowing performance in a movie that was at times both incredibly sad and gut-wrenchingly hilarious.  Tangent aside, Boden and Fleck are incredibly capable film-makers and I have no doubt that they have great careers ahead of them.

            Sugar tells the story of a young Dominican baseball player named Miguel “Sugar” Santos.  His teammates and friends call him Sugar because he always eats more dessert than anybody else.  After achieving success in the Dominican Republic, Sugar is signed by MLB recruiters to play for an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.  He attends their spring training facility in Arizona where learns the lessons that America has to offer.  He has to learn English, deal with racism, girls, and is constantly terrified of not playing good enough.  In his home town, Sugar is a superstar – the best around.  However, when he arrives in America, he is just average, and the rest of the movie details his fight to overcome mediocrity. 

            As the titular character, newcomer Algenis Perez Soto is absolutely fantastic.  The making-of featurette told me that Soto was actually a Dominican baseball player who auditioned for a role as an extra, but Boden and Fleck made a terrific find.  This was one of the best performances I have seen in years, and the fact that it was by a non-actor gives me great hope for the future of filmmaking.  The first 30 minutes or so of the film takes place in the Dominican (it was also filmed there) and I loved the way that Sugar interacted with his friends and family.  Everything seem well-researched and authentic, despite the fact that the Spanish some of the characters spoke seemed a little bit too “textbook.”  By this I mean that I could understand everything they were saying, and as a non Spanish speaker, it seemed dubious that I could understand.  It just didn’t seem like they would really speak that way.  All of the supporting characters were just as good as Soto, never taking too much attention away from the lead, but always adding to the emotion and authenticity of the character.

            Another thing that I liked was the way that the story unfolded.  Like I said before, this is not your average rags to riches sports movie.  There is no happy ending here.  Our lead does not make it to the majors.  The thing is – that’s not really the point of the story.  We’re not supposed to feel bad for Sugar, and he never feels bad for himself.  Despite the sadness that comes with the fact that Sugar isn’t good enough, the movie still illicits hope and happiness.  Even though he doesn’t make it with baseball, Sugar still manages to find his way in America, and the film definitely ends on a hopeful note.

            The last thing I absolutely loved about this movie was the cinematography and music.  It featured at least two scenes set to music by one of my favorite bands, TV on the Radio, and most of the other music was of the indie variety.  The cinematography was also great.  One of the key scenes, in which Sugar experiments with performance enhancing drugs, had the camera attached to Sugar, but facing him, Spike Lee-style, while he walked in a daze through several locations.  The shot was about 4 minutes long and brought on a huge range of emotions.  It was extremely well done, as was the entirety of the flick.

            Like I said before, I can definitely recommend this movie to everybody.  It has a very strong, if unknown cast, it is very accessible, and I hope it ends up getting recognized when it comes time for awards.   I’ll give it a 9/10.