Review of Sugar (2008) by Andrew S — 24 Nov 2009

Early on in Sugar, our protagonist Miguel finds himself on a bus travelling through Phoenix after landing in the USA, far from his native soil of the Dominican Republic. As he journeys through this foreign city, we catch glimpses of stores, parking lots, all things commonplace in an American town but seen through the eyes of a newcomer, to whom they are not at all common and completely unreal. What made this incredibly brief scene work (with a mix of distant shots, careful editing and performance) was how it perfectly captured the feeling of being an outsider, being the fish out of water, the stranger in a strange land. You can only truly appreciate that feeling if you've visited a new country for the first time and everything is so overwhelmingly odd that even the mundane becomes as alien.

While Sugar focuses on a young immigrants personal journey to become a professional baseball player in the Major Leagues, this is not a film about baseball (a sport I find about as inscrutable as speaking Japanese backwards), it's a story about an immigrant trying to get his foot in a door. It's the age old story of finding the American Dream, as elusive as it is, and the hardships those that seek it come across along the way.

This is the second film from the team behind the acclaimed Half Nelson, and it is a more honest, natural and well paced affair than it's predecessor, which, while ruled by a great performance by Ryan Gosling, was inscinere and unrealistic in it's storytelling. Sugar suffers from neither of these flaws and is fronted by a subtle, naturalistic performance from newcomer Algenis Perez Soto.

A touching, thoughtful story which never lectures it's audience on it's meaning or panders to their needs with easy answers.