Sugar
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
2009, Journeyman/Hunting Lane/Gowanus/HBO/Single A
120 minutes (Spanish and English)
LATAMROB rating: ****
INTERESTING take on the American Dream seen through the eyes of Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), a baseball hopeful from the Dominican Republic who jumps at the chance to try for the big time in the US Major Leagues as a way of pulling his family out of poverty. However, realistically, the pitcher’s arm is not quite up to it. Isolation and disorientation take hold and Sugar’s dream gradually falls apart. He finds himself questioning his abilities and re-examining his future, ending up in search of a new life in New York. It is an old and common story, but one rarely brought to the screen in such a well-crafted form that exposes as illusory the rags-to-riches dream in an honest and poignant way. – EC
