Sugar

Filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson) weave this introspective sports drama concerning a talented Dominican baseball player who longs to break into the American big league and earn the money needed to support his impoverished family. Miguel Santos is a talented pitcher who might just ...more

In the Dominican Republic, baseball is a pop culture pastime that many young men grasp onto. For some poverty-afflicted Dominican youths, the game represents the chance for a better life for those who have never even stepped foot on U.S. soil. It's a symbiotic relationship, where many talents migrate and pursue the American dream while supplying the sport with top-notch players. But Sugar is not a feel good sports flick about the plight of the underdog who wins the big game with a full count, ...more

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck made a noteworthy narrative feature debut with Half Nelson, and they establish themselves as filmmakers of uncommon integrity, compassion, and vision with their superb follow-up, Sugar. While the film deals with familiar elements -- it is a fish-out-of-water story and a sports drama -- the filmmakers scrupulously avoid cliché, and in their own unobtrusively artful way, subvert audience expectations. While the film isn't really about baseball, so much as it's about a ...more