Film

Sugar

Cert: 15

Description: In his native Dominican Republic, 19-year-old baseball player Miguel 'Sugar' Santos is the king of the pitching mound. He is one of the star attractions at the academy in San Pedro De Macoris. However, if he is to progress as a player, Sugar must catch the eye of scouts of the American minor leagues, in a country where he doesn't speak the language. He secures a temporary move to Bridgetown, Iowa, where he chases a lucrative contract that will guarantee the financial stability of his family. However, Sugar must overcome his insecurities, bigotry from some of the locals and try to ignore his attraction to his host family's devoutly Christian, teenage granddaughter.

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Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck.

Cast: Algenis Perez Soto, Rayniel Rufino, Ellany Porterfield, Jaime Tirelli, Ann Whitney, Michael Gaston, Andre Holland

Country: US.

Year: 2008.

Duration: 114mins

Sugar: better than the usual baseball film

Algenis Perez Soto plays role of Sugar effectively

By Derek Malcolm
5 Jun 2009

Films about baseball have to be pretty good, or star Kevin Costner, to make a dent in the box-office here.

But this story of a Spanish-speaking Dominican pitcher struggling to make it in America, where the culture is completely alien to him, is better than the usual efforts, thanks to the modest but effective playing of Algenis Perez Soto as Sugar and the film-making of directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who refuse to go in for the triumphalism of success. �

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