Review of Sugar (2008) by Marco P — 08 Nov 2011

Boden and Fleck are two of my favorite directing tandems. They did the almost flawless Half Nelson, easily one of my favorite movies of all time. Now they delve into the realm of sports-- the American pastime, baseball. To quote Bill Simmons of ESPN, it's one of the best sports movies ever. However, I believe that Sugar is more a character study than a sports film; it analyzes the choices one makes and the consequences following.

Unlike Half Nelson, wherein the Dan Dunne is destined to remain a basehead-- Sugar Santos is a man with all the talent in the world, and the real hook is seeing where he takes this talent. The filmmakers explore the reality of poverty in Latin American slums, where the hope of making it in the States is the only means of prosperity-- not too far from that of the Philippines. Therefore, the local boys play baseball like it's the only thing that matters. Sugar shows us that some of these boys don't really care about the promise of steady money from the clubs, but the alternative to it is often times much worse.