The filmmaking team behind Half Nelson takes us on another moving and humane exploration of contemporary American society.
Beginning in the Dominican Republic, we are introduced to Miguel, known as ‘Sugar’ (Algenis Perez Soto), an amateur baseball player attempting to escape the poverty of his life through US college baseball.
Even with his considerable talent, Sugar must still bribe local officials in order to make the try-outs. But where this could simply have been a typically schematic tale of the American Dream coming true through sport, we are given a much more engaging, honest exploration of what it means to lose your identity and integrity in pursuit of a potentially illusory goal.
Making it to the US, Sugar finds himself culturally displaced, linguistically at sea and profoundly homesick in the alien cornfields of Iowa. Despite a faltering romance, he decides to search for another path to happiness.
Beautifully made with real depth, sensitivity and feeling for its main character, Sugar is a rigorous, thought-provoking film which consistently wrong-foots expectations and is as far apart from a mainstream American sports film as it is possible to get.
