Sugar (2008)

Nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award for Screenwriting (it lost to Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Dramatic Prize (losing to Frozen River), Sugar is an impressive follow-up to the multi-award winner Half Nelson (2006) by co-directors/writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (he was the sole director on Half Nelson, which earned its star Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination). This story of young impoverished Dominican pitcher Miguel "Sugar" Santos (handsome newcomer Algenis Pérez Soto) had baseball, social commentary, plenty of interesting characters, colorful North American locations, great pacing, and logical subtitles. The online press kit, on which I failed to find the soundtrack list I sought, has some fascinating info about the production on pages 4-17 (it's doublespaced). There's an interesting bit of geographical trivia on imdb that I will let you discover for yourself, as some might consider it a spoiler. I had plenty of company for this on Memorial Day: not only Jack, who loves baseball, but also Mike, who loves baseball, Sally, who loves Mike, and Amy, who was game for a movie with her elders. Get it? Game? We all liked it a lot. We discussed the Dominican Republic before the movie, and wondered if its biggest export is sugar or baseball players. I mentioned in my review of The Soloist that reviewers like to say "pitch perfect" a lot these days. This one was just that: pitch perfect. Get it? Pitch? Okay, I'm done now.