Sugar - Il giovane campione

The success of Latin ball players like Roberto Clemente, Juan Marichal, and Orlando Cepeda are legend but we never hear about the hundreds that fail, those who get lost in the system or are simply unable to handle the pressure of exorbitant signing bonuses or less than welcoming small town environments. In Sugar, writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, whose film Half Nelson from 2006 won numerous awards, have created a film about the problems faced by young Latinos in attempting to make the jump from the comforts of their home town environment to the major leagues. It is not just a movie about baseball but about what is important in life.

20-year-old Miguel Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) is nicknamed Sugar - he says because he is sweet on the ladies but others have different opinions. Sugar is a pitcher at an American baseball training academy in the Dominican Republic whose recently developed knuckle curve ball puts him ahead of the pack. He is the idol of his family and the children in his home town but must compete with hundreds of others like himself for an invitation to a minor league Spring Training camp. Though the baseball academy attempts to teach the fundamentals of the English language, all the players seem to remember is "home run", "foul ball", "I got it", and the words to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".

Given his gifts, Sugar is invited to spring training with the fictional Kansas City Knights in Phoenix, Arizona. Eventually assigned to a Single-A farm team in Bridgetown, Iowa, he is light years away from his comfort zone. When he first sees his posted assignment to Bridgetown, Ia. he asks "where the heck is Ia (ee-ay)"? Sugar boards with a Midwestern farm family that has taken in Latino players in the past, but the adjustment is difficult. Sugar does what is expected - attends church, eats foods he is unfamiliar with, and says little but his only companion is Jorge (Rayniel Rufino), a fellow Dominican on the team who has remained stuck in Single-A ball because of an injury that refuses to heal.

Soon his problem with language and customs begin to take their toll. He encounters racial slurs at a local nightclub and is confused when he receives mixed signals from the family's ultra religious teenage daughter Anne (Ellary Porterfield). When he is slow to recover from a leg injury sustained in covering first on a ground ball, his pitching skills begin to suffer as well. One scene highlights his sense of dislocation as he tries to make his way through a massive entertainment complex filled with flashing lights, video game machines, and bowling alleys. To try to regain his pitching form, he takes steroids but it only makes his sense of disorientation worse.

His manager (Johnny Marx) is patient but he is paid to produce results and his sensitivity to Sugar's situation only goes so far. When Sugar asks teammate Brad (Andre Holland) what he would do if he could no longer play baseball and learns that Brad studied history in college, he begins to rethink exactly what he wants to do with his life. After Jorge heads for New York after being let go, the film moves in an unexpected direction, but never loses its intelligence and sensitivity. Soto is a captivating presence in his first acting role and the fact that he is also a skilled amateur baseball player gives the baseball scenes an electric authenticity. While Boden and Fleck show their love of the game, they do not hide their disdain for its exploitative aspects. No clichéd sports success story, Sugar is sweet and goes down easy but leaves a pungent aftertaste.

Screened this film at its premiere during Sundance 2008. The main appeal for most coming to see this movie was to see what the team behind Half Nelsen could do on the second go around. And for the most part those who enjoy quality film-making will find many positives here, though this is a completely different film then Half. Much like Half Nelsen the cast feels authentic and the characters are very understated and come across with very true to life performances. The main issue with audience appreciation will hinge mostly on their interest in baseball. Serious baseball fans will most likely look differently at the Latin America ball players and the MLB system once they witness what is a very accurate portrait of the trials and tribulations of the foreign players. Sure most folks know about the great Latin players like Pedro, and David Ortiz, etc,, but do they know about players like Migual "Suger" Santos? The answer is probably not and I believe the filmmakers succeeded in creating a film that makes us think about what life is like for all those players we don't get to see under the bright lights and on the baseball cards. Its all very fascinating stuff for baseball fans to ponder and think about, those none baseball fans may find it slightly dull but with an open mind its still a beautiful portrait of a young mans journey to America.

First off, the lead actor Algenis Perez Soto is fantastic, it is unbelievable how great his performance here is when you consider that he has absolutely no acting experience at all. They literally pulled this kid off a ball field in the Dominican and stuck him in front of a camera. The rest of the cast is great as well and similarly most are not trained actors since the makers or the film wanted authentic ballplayers. From whats been said this is most likely going to be a HBO release on TV and I think thats a great spot for this film as its definitely too small and too specific a subject for a wide release. I highly encourage baseball fans to check this out when they get the chance.

Most baseball stories are focused on the guy who manages to get all the way to the Majors. Sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that for every spot filled on a major league roster, there are scores, if not hundreds, of players who get sidelined, somewhere along the way, in their quest to make it to the big leagues! You don't have to like Baseball to enjoy SUGAR, but if you do, you'll probably enjoy it all the more.

You've got to give credit to HBO films...Gutsy move to make a baseball movie that

A) Is about 70% in Spanish

B) Manages to make the viewer empathize with the isolation and culture clash experienced by someone who arrives here not speaking any English and

C) Morphs completely into a different movie genre!

Algenis Perez Soto plays SUGAR. I'd venture a guess that more likely, he REALLY is SUGAR! IMDb PRO lists this as his only acting gig, ever. Apparently, he is undecided as to whether or not to continue his career in acting.

SUGAR also boasts some great Dominican Meringue music, new, exotic third-world locations, and an on-screen collision between Dominican and Iowa Mid-Western cultures... Honestly... Quite fascinating to watch!

8.5* OUT OF 10*! ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

What's with the low ratings for this movie? I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival, and people loved it. Is it that some audiences wanted a regular sports movie, with everything leading up to the big game? This follows Dominican ball players and their dreams of making it to the bigs. We go from the Dominican to small town Iowa, then to New York City in a movie that's pitch perfect the whole way. And it got everything right, from how small towns in America watch these young guys grow and progress, to how they're treated like animals when they face injuries or setbacks.

The actors are mostly unknowns, and they give the movie a documentary feel. I especially loved the old couple that takes one ball player in every year, and the minor league baseball manager, who is portrayed very fairly as a guy who pushes his players, but wants to see them make it.

This movie is a home run, pardon the pun, because it transcends the sports genre and becomes a movie about finding one's self worth, no matter where your career path takes you.

I believe that if you want something more from a sports movie than being just a past-time, you'll find it in "Sugar", from the team who directed "Half Nelson", another movie that was more concerned with characters and self-worth over silly plot requirements.

To the low scorers out there I would say don't judge a movie for what it's not, and really look at what it is. Because this is a special movie that never goes wrong.

Greetings again from the darkness. Filmed in quasi-documentary style, the film appears on the surface to be about the Latino dream of making it to the major leagues. Upon closer review, the family and friends of Sugar only ask "Are you going to the states?". The crux of the film lies not so much in the long odds of making it to the show, but moreso, simply escaping the homeland ... it's just that baseball is viewed as the quickest ticket out.

The "Half Nelson" writer/director team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck score again with "Sugar". What really hit home with me was how many people miss out on their real chance because they just have a simple shortage of passion for their talent. When Sugar bashes the water cooler, it's not because he pitched poorly, but rather because he fears he will be shipped back home.

There are many fine moments in this and the final act twist is not just terrific story telling, but fitting as well. It does what a final act should do ... connect the dots. Think back to the domino scene when one guy spouts that he once hit 98 in spring training. The recognition that he is back home playing dominoes is the real story. Good stuff.

First time actor Algenis Perez Soto perfectly captures the charm and innocence of Sugar and finally the harsh reality of the situation. This is one to see.