Sugar (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2008): USA/Dominican Republic

Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

“I’d like to think my film leaves you with the idea that people are becoming more aware of the world…you have to hope, right?”

The above quote was said by Ryan Fleck, one of the two filmmakers behind the feature film, Sugar . The other filmmaker is Anna Boden, who co-wrote, co-directed, and edited the film. Together, the two take Fleck’s message to another level, telling a story about a small group of select people (minor league baseball players), from a small country (the Dominican Republic), trying to accomplish an impossible goal (the American Dream).

Miguel “Sugar” Santos is a 20 year-old, up-and-coming pitcher who trains at a Kansas City Knight’s recruitment center in the Dominican Republic with hundreds of other baseball players that hunger to leave the country. When scouts discover Sugar’s talent, and his mean knuckle ball curve, Santos leaves his hometown, his family, and his girlfriend all for the chance to make it big, playing in the major leagues. He gets relocated to Iowa, where he struggles in the minor league to stand out on the field and fit in outside of it.

The team of Boden and Fleck create  yet another great American independent film that follows up their 2006 success, Half-Nelson, which the two both co-wrote with Fleck directing. But what is also interesting about Sugar is that if the audience hadn’t known better, it would seem as if a Dominican filmmaker made it. Which only goes to show how much work went into researching not only baseball’s culture, but also Dominican culture.

Almost the entire film was spoken in Spanish and its cast consisted of mainly non-actors. Including Algenis Perez Soto, who plays the lead character Sugar. Soto’s performance is genuine, because Boden and Fleck found him in the Dominican Republic playing baseball. At times, the performance is so honest and real that it feels less like a film and more like an ESPN feature documentary. Yet, at other times, Boden and Fleck remind us why they’re leading the way in American Cinema with pristine cinematography and an incredible screenplay of story about a world not many people know about.

I like to think the reason why people like to watch films is to become more aware of the world around them. You have to hope, right? Then…perhaps more films like Sugar will be made.