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The way one enjoys the elegance of sports or the excitement of the competition is admirable, and so is the discipline that comes with the training. All of this makes the love of sports look extremely appealing. Still, it is worrying how unforgiving and so incredibly unethical the world of professional sports can be, as it seems to center around hurting the dreams and hopes of the youth. This weekend, the national college basketball championships will occur, showcasing some of the competition’s best while revealing the darker side hidden underneath. Hypothetically, it is the core of the film “Sugar” a thoughtful and beautiful creation by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Which, to be fair, has a huge focus on the dark side of the sport itself.
The filmu follows a minor-league pitcher from Iowa who managed to escape the training camps in the Dominican Republic. The character and the overall game of baseball is deeply appreciated in the movie, and that love allows the filmmakers to capture the exquisite game rhythm. With all of that said, the storyline, pacing and editing makes it easier to follow. From the lightheartedness of the locker room pre-game to the intense atmosphere of the game, some subtlety shines through which further enhances the beauty of the game.
It is their faith in the dignity of the sport that enables Ms. Boden and Mr. Fleck to view its economic and social aspects with a degree of critique. Even if it purports to tell a fictional narrative, ‘Sugar’ is much like ‘Hoop Dreams’ a great film that does not allow us to fantasize about sports while enjoying it and resting on its shelf.
Miguel Santos is capable of the said delight. As Azúcar (sugar), he is incredibly joyful and carefree, but also highly competitive which makes him a little cocky. This is in no way a surprise, specially for nonprofessional actors like Algenis Pérez Soto, who showcases his talent and expresses with marvelous grace.
As several young Dominican men towards baseball, he was picked by an American professional team, the fake Kansas City Knights, so he is able to showcase some of his talent. Along with his comrades, Sugar lives in a training camp which is a blend of preparatory school and prison. On top of that, there is a vigorous armed officer positioned near the entrance.
On weekends, Miguel returns to his village to spend time with his family, his girlfriend, and a few older friends whose dreams of making it to a professional league have long gone.
In their prior feature, Ms Boden and Mr Fleck work well together as a couple living in Brooklyn. For a second, it felt like they were performing a certain type of teacher’s fiction, which tends to be highly unflattering, and is often termed the urban teacher’s heroic drama. But by casting Ryan Gosling as a teacher who is a drug addict, they completely alter the sentiments we so simplistically, without thought, assume are universal. This particular teacher, who is even more crucial, was also a very complicated, morally ambiguous, politically idealistic individual. And that’s why they shatter, not just destroy, the naive sentimental notions about race, class, and urban living.
A few parallels can be drawn between “Sugar” and what is being discussed here. For more than half of the running time, it felt to me that the Sugar film projected a rudimentary sports narrative centered around the ups and downs of a critical season. After working long hours in Arizona doing spring training, Miguel moves to Iowa. Attempting out for Bridgetown Swing, he lives with an elderly couple and tries to impress the locals as he is taken on as the starting pitcher.
Outside of the field, he mixes with his fellow Spanish-speaking teammates, makes friends with a former college athlete, and engages in light-hearted flirting with his hosts’ churchgoing grand daughter and Miguel is already being hunted like a prey by her for both spiritual and sexual reasons. (As Americans we do agree, at times reluctantly so, with the constitutional separation of church and state, although church and sex is much more difficult to keep apart) On the pitch, Miguel is on fire from the start, gets bedaubed by an injury, succumbs to a handful of temptation, and afterwards…
But for the time being, take another look. The game of baseball is played free from the jurisdiction of an inningending clock, and surprises are always expected. And the surprise of “Sugar” I am not referring to the shocking twist in the plot during the last act, which catches everyone off guard, but his point of view is quite different. My perspective is therefore that the movie is not really centered around baseball, rather revolves around something else entirely. Among other things, it details how a foreigner sees America, how the stunning parts of the Caribbean, Midwest and South Bronx are beautifully captured (thanks to cinematographer Andrij Parekh), and the struggle of an ambitious young man in a world that is cruelly split between the fortunate with success and the unfortunate and unsuccessful.
The divisions here are narrower in a profession sports unlike elsewhere, which entices some of the impoverished citizens of this area with promises of immense glory. However, a large part of this world consists of a middle ground where some space remains: modest pay from supporting the family jobs that bring neither medals or disgrace, and that meager slice of luck that alters strike three into ball four.
It is neither exciting nor disheartening still Sugar makes his way out of repetition in even the profoundly pessimistic sayings about competition. He seeks to ponder upon and contemplate the feeling of satisfaction alongside the emotions of frustration, which lie in between the two extremes of winning and losing. This is a deep and humane kindness that most honestly form the rarest and most ecstatic aspect of the film.
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