Sugar is the story of Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a Dominican baseball player with talent and a desire to play professional baseball in the United States. In the Dominican Republic, major league scouts are trawling for talent, vigilant but instructive in the game and the profession of being a baseball player, to the young men anxious for their chance and shot at big-league fame and fortune. Sugar’s curveball brings him to a minor league farm team in Iowa. The film communicates the joy and wonder of Sugar’s initial exposure to the US but also shows the alienation and isolation he experiences. He boards with an older couple on their farm. This sounds like an agreeable arrangement—put the kid into a family so he can feel at home. The reality is not nearly so simple or convenient. Sugar is not the first ball player in this home, and he certainly won’t be the last. Sugar is, to the baseball community and his Iowa hosts, merely a commodity, although they would not view the situation in such stark terms. His fortunes and future depend on his ability to perform satisfactorily on the baseball diamond. When Sugar begins to struggle on the field, he’s faced with a choice as to what his future will be and how he will handle the adversity he’s facing. Algenis Perez Soto as Sugar does a great job of conveying both the exhilaration of opportunity and the fear of failure in a county where everything is foreign, including ordering a meal in a diner. This isn’t a feel-good, edge-of-your-seat film where you know that Sugar will pull it together and rise to the top. Life’s like that for a very few, and this film shows the path is not easy and success is not guaranteed. Monday, February 22, 2010
Sugar, Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Sugar is the story of Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a Dominican baseball player with talent and a desire to play professional baseball in the United States. In the Dominican Republic, major league scouts are trawling for talent, vigilant but instructive in the game and the profession of being a baseball player, to the young men anxious for their chance and shot at big-league fame and fortune. Sugar’s curveball brings him to a minor league farm team in Iowa. The film communicates the joy and wonder of Sugar’s initial exposure to the US but also shows the alienation and isolation he experiences. He boards with an older couple on their farm. This sounds like an agreeable arrangement—put the kid into a family so he can feel at home. The reality is not nearly so simple or convenient. Sugar is not the first ball player in this home, and he certainly won’t be the last. Sugar is, to the baseball community and his Iowa hosts, merely a commodity, although they would not view the situation in such stark terms. His fortunes and future depend on his ability to perform satisfactorily on the baseball diamond. When Sugar begins to struggle on the field, he’s faced with a choice as to what his future will be and how he will handle the adversity he’s facing. Algenis Perez Soto as Sugar does a great job of conveying both the exhilaration of opportunity and the fear of failure in a county where everything is foreign, including ordering a meal in a diner. This isn’t a feel-good, edge-of-your-seat film where you know that Sugar will pull it together and rise to the top. Life’s like that for a very few, and this film shows the path is not easy and success is not guaranteed. 
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I too have seem this film. I enjoyed what seemed like a realistic account of the experiences these young men faced while trying for their shot in professional baseball. To me, it was a very good film that toggled between a documentary and a story about the baseball players. The pressures to succeed and very tight reigns on the young men were not quite what I anticipated. The film achieved the personalization of these aspects of their experience. A good film to watch.
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