SYNOPSICS
Sugar (2008) is a Spanish,English movie. Anna Boden,Ryan Fleck has directed this movie. Algenis Perez Soto,Jose Rijo,Walki Cuevas,Santo Silvestre are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Sugar (2008) is considered one of the best Drama,Sport movie in India and around the world.
By 2008, more than 25 percent of major league baseball players were born in Latin America. At 19, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a serious kid from the Dominican Republic, signs with Kansas City. He flies to Phoenix for tryouts and is sent to the Class A team "The Swing" in the fictional town of Bridgetown, Iowa, where he lives with a farm family. Thus begins his odyssey: leaving his mom and girlfriend; living in an alien culture; learning English; overcoming jitters; working hard; achieving early success; navigating friendships, occasional racism, and a woman's mixed signals; dealing with an injury; trying performance-enhancing drugs; and, searching for his place in the world. Will he make it to the Majors; will he play in New York?
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Sugar (2008) Reviews
A Wonderful Movie in Every Way
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.
The "Friday Night Lights" of baseball
"Sugar" is simply one of the best sports movies ever and it does so avoiding every sports movies cliché ever made. The story of the main character is simply a composite of the story of the majority of people who go to play the game professionally. Not only that, but also reflects the story of the immigrant who comes to America pursuing a dream. Spoken mostly in Spanish, the movie almost qualifies as a foreign language film. The filmmakers do an excellent job capturing the contrast in atmosphere of the Dominican Republic -a poor country, rich in happiness- to the heartland of America, and back to the Bronx -a Dominican stronghold outside of the island, also stricken by poverty. As in "Friday Night Lights" you can feel the constant stress these young players endure to make it big. It's every bit as tense and if you like baseball, and are interested a little bit about these foreign superstars now playing the game, this movie is going to be a treat. One of the best films of 2009.
A Major Milestone In Hispanic Cinema
Sugar is an important Hispanic film. And yes, two Americans made it, Fleck and Boden, but they do so without compromise, without an agenda, and without patronising - and what we get IS an Hispanic film - it is not a film about America, it really is a superb Hispanic (Spanish in America) perspective - and it just blew me away. 100% convincing, valid, justified - and simply a great film. The story of the baseball player Sugar, played with consummate skill by Soto, has all the elements of a good sports movie plus the added dimension of a very well thought through arc and development. This is without a doubt one of the better films of the year; it captures both baseball and the alienation of the Hispanic experience in the US with alacrity and a light touch. The characters have real depth and emphasis is placed on the internal rather than simply the external. Strongly recommended as a breakthrough film for Hispanic film in the US, both in the quality of the story and acting and for excellence in film making.
Like A Good Fastball, This One Sneaks Up On You
Did you ever watch a movie and think, "Eh, this is okay but nothing great" and then, when it was over, you said, " "Wow, that was really good!?" That's "Sugar," a film you may not quite appreciate how good it is until it's over, and then you think about it for awhile. What made it so good, I thought, was the amazing realism with the dialog. If I hadn't read that this was movie with actors, I would have sworn I was watching a documentary. We follow a young guy from the Dominican Republic about 19 who is hoping to become a Major League baseball player. If you follow baseball, you already know there are a lot of good players from the Dominican. "Miguel 'Sugar' Santos," played by first-time actor Algenis Perez Soto is a pitcher in the Kansas City organization, but most of the baseball in seen in a small town in Iowa, where Santos is assigned to play Class A ball as his first stepping stone to the Major Leagues. In one scene, I saw a sign on a business that said "Davenport" and the ending credits list Quad Cities as a place of filming. It's in Eastern Iowa right on the Mississippi River. In the last 40 minutes, the film takes place in New York City as our ballplayer gets discouraged and takes a bus to The Big Apple to see his friend and to see Yankee Stadium, where he has dreams of playing. This film does not have the normal successful-happy ending, and that makes it all the more realistic. It's not a sad ending, either, as our hero makes do with what he has and gets help from some nice people....and simply gets on with his life and plays baseball simply for the joy of it on weekends. The best part of this film, I thought, was the realistic dialog that went with that realistic story. Everybody from the ballplayers, to the Higgins family in Iowa who housed "Santos," to the Iowa manager and the all the folks he met in New York City all sounded like the real deal. This movie does not have the feel of something made up; it looks and sounds very authentic. Although made for an Hispanic audience, with most of the language in Spanish, it also was for North Americans, to open our eyes what it's like for all these Latin American players who come to the states to play professional baseball and can't speak English. This is baseball's version of "Lost In Translation." Yes, the story has a few flaws and it's slow at times, but its definitely worth watching and can lead to some interesting discussions.
"SUGAR--The Sweet Smell of Success (at Being True to Yourself)"!
..........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA....and ORLANDO, FL More often than not, 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're likely to enjoy it all the more. You have to give HBO films credit....Gutsy move to make a baseball movie that... A) Is about 70% in Spanish B) Manages to make the viewer empathize with the isolation & 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 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. Amazingly, Mr. Perez's contact E-mail address also appears. Here it is: algenisperez@gmail.com (Hope that you find the address Helpful!) SUGAR also boasts some great Dominican Merengue music; new, exotic third-world locations; and an on-screen collision between Dominican and Mid-Western Iowan cultures...Quite fascinating to watch! 9*...ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!