Currently available on the BBC iPlayer for five more days, is the 2009 film Sugar. The story of a young Dominican baseball player trying to make it to the major leagues, Sugar is bittersweet and largely free of the clichés of the genre. Though the titular character thinks he's chasing sporting success, the film is more about loneliness, alienation and the search for a place in the world, as well as the contrast between different ways of pursuing the American dream.
Though not perfect, the film has a gentle pace and naturalistic style, as well as a melancholy tone, which makes it stand out from the usual pomp and self-importance of the average 'triumph over adversity' sporting dramas. Thanks to some beautiful cinematography, the film is genuinely cinematic, but the directors (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck) pull off the difficult trick of making the United States, in its many different guises (multicultural urban jungle, picture postcard countryside, neon-lit diner), appear simultaneously romantic and foreign, illustrating why Sugar feels so lost, just when he should be finding success. This is also due to the performance of Algenis Perez Soto, who totally inhabits Sugar, with his confusing mix of hopes and fears, and growing unease at his surroundings. Soto has yet to appear on screen since, and whether he is capable of matching this performance in the future, or whether this was the one role he was born to play, remains to be seen.
Sugar is light on sporting action, but aside from its universal themes, it offers a glimpse into the world behind the world we know, and it should be easy to draw parallels between this story of a young sportsman alone in a foreign land, and any number of other sports. In particular, football fans used to seeing African players plying their trade in Europe, might see the similarity.
