Sugar

Melancholic and pragmatic, Sugar is not a rousing Saturday night sports movie.....it will allow younger baseball fans to take a chance on this intelligent and moving film.....the film looks stunning, especially considering its meager budget.....Sugar is an incredibly well-researched and keenly observed film..... ... Full Review

What is most remarkable about Sugar is....good pictures, you're watching a movie you've already seen.....Sugar is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who helmed the miraculous 2006 film Half Nelson (frankly, their names alone were enough to pique my interest in this film, and I had the too-infrequent experience of watching it without knowing anything about it).....Though a good chunk of the film is in English, the majority is in subtitled Spanish....As a general rule, the mix is full and thic ... Full Review

Sugar is a simple baseball melodrama about The Dominican Dream:....The story is too predictable to justify the film's length.....This Sugar doesn't blend the sweet with the bittersweet as deftly as it might have.....Algenis Perez Soto makes a compelling leading man as the film follows the rookie through the arc of a season..... ... Full Review

All in all, a lovely, heartwarming movie.....A compelling and compassionate stranger-in-a-strange-land drama, it's a film brimming with insight, integrity and life..... ... Full Review

Where the film really succeeds is in the strengths of the actors' performances.....Sugar might look like a typical underdog sports movie on the surface....The awkward and detached kindness of Sugar's Arizona hosts, the educated chirpiness of Brad Johnson (Andre Holland) and, most of all, the considered intensity of Sugar himself..... ... Full Review

No matter how many triumphant home run tales you've experienced, chances are you haven't seen a baseball movie quite like "Sugar." Understated, moving and grounded utterly in non-Hollywood reality, "Sugar" - now out on DVD ($28.96) and Blu-ray ($39.95) -... ... Full Article

Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times writes: Like most sports movies, "Sugar" ends with a game. Not the typical big game with everything on the line and slo-mo heroics. ... Full Article

WASHINGTON - In 2007, Ryan Gosling earned an Oscar nomination for Half Nelson, an astonishingly good debut by the writing-directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. ... Full Article

Thursday 4 June 2009 10.05 BST On this edition of Film Weekly, Ryan Fleck, co-director of the Oscar-nominated Half Nelson, joins Jason Solomons to talk about his new film Sugar , a subtle take on the American dream through the... ... Full Article

Ryan Fleck has said that people who are not fans of baseball should not be put off seeing his new film Sugar , which charts the fledgling career of a young Dominican immigrant. ... Full Article

How do you follow the superlative Half Nelson? With the only-slightly-less-superlative Sugar, another tough, tender drama that swerves formula and ducks sentiment, its meticulous human observations and measured movie technique confirming Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as consummate filmmakers. ... Full Article