Sugar - Region 99 DVD

Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden shoot some excellent baseball action footage, including a magnificent shot that begins with Miguel on the pitcher's mound in silent prayer, then gradually opening to the fullness and energy of a ballpark just before an opening pitch. The story, however, is just as much about not playing baseball, about discovering life after old goals are more or less within reach. Throughout Miguel's highs and lows, we see him adapt, in dozens of small ways, to a new country--turning American, really. Sugar's final act unexpectedly shifts the action to a very different but logical locale. There, we witness Miguel making a different set of choices than the ones he always thought he wanted--becoming a whole person, with losses as well as gains, in the process. --Tom Keogh


Stills from Sugar (Click for larger image)