Sugar

Anyone going into Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Sugar expecting just another uplifting sports tale isn’t going to find it here. Sure, the story of a young pitcher named Miguel “Sugar” Santos (newcomer Algenis Perez Soto) leaving the poverty of his home in the Dominican Republic for a shot at playing professional baseball in the United States is ripe for yet another schmaltzy underdog story. And as easy as it would’ve been for Boden and Fleck (Half Nelson) to trek into that territory, they never do, making a movie that’s not so much about baseball as it is about the people who play it, creating what can best be described as a sports movie that speaks to people who don’t care about sports.

A lot of this stems in the way the makers appear to genuinely care about the characters they’re documenting. This isn’t a cast of meathead jocks. No, the ballplayers on-screen are people with actual emotions, concerns and interests, Sugar himself being a prime example. Sugar is a pitcher with a nasty curveball. Baseball—and the chance to play professionally in the U.S.—is his one and only opportunity of escaping the poverty of the Dominican Republic and a life stuck working in sweatshops making T-shirts or selling cell-phone chargers. But beyond the personal pressure to make it, there are also his dreams of making a better life for his entire family, which depend on Sugar’s arm.

It’s not until Sugar gets sent to Iowa to play minor league ball that the difficulty of his goals become apparent. The constant pressure to perform at a high level is part of it, but there’s also the language barrier and the isolation Sugar soon feels from his inability to really connect with anyone. From here, the movie could have been about Sugar’s determination to overcome all obstacles, to persevere etc. Instead, the film avoids the simple inspirational route, opting for a more personal view as an alternative. The movie becomes not about sports or motivational proselytizing, but rather about the importance of finding where you fit in the world and doing what’s right for yourself. The ending isn’t the obvious one—or necessarily the happiest one—but it’s the most fitting, and, at least for Sugar, the most hopeful.

Sure, Boden and Fleck’s stylistic method is never more than utilitarian. And their more realistic approach never devolves into the nitty-gritty or the grim that’s often pawned off as significant in the indie world. Sugar is a movie with a sense of humor that wears its humanity on its sleeve. Its small, intimate scope won’t change the way you look at film. But it is a worthy little film, filled with realistic, relatable characters, something that’s all too rare during summer blockbuster season. Rated R for language, some sexuality and brief drug use.