Review of Sugar (2008) by William H — 16 Feb 2010

A documentarian style view of how MLB ends up with so many Dominican players, and so few Dominican players end up with MLB. That was the best part of this movie, everything was natural, and the directors showed you how it all works, the baseball team's baseball "academy" in the Dominican, the look at Single A in the states, etc, with all the hopes and dreams that string the system together.

But this movie is more like a 3.75 stars, as it falls apart in the third act. Roger Ebert said this but it bears repeating -- not really a baseball, or a sports movie, but an immigrant movie. That being said, the parts this movie nails is the little things, the research they did into the Dominican pipeline's functioning, but also other things, like the first day staying in an American motel for a group of Dominance teenagers, going to nearest restaurant and ordering Waffles, because the only person who knows English well enough to put in a passable order, said Waffles.

This movie feels authentic.