Sugar (2008)

Dominican baseball star Miguel "Sugar" Santos is recruited to play in the U.S. minor-leagues.

Directors:

Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

Writers:

Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

Stars:

Algenis Perez Soto, Jose Rijo, Walki Cuevas

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jose Rijo	...	Alvarez
Walki Cuevas	...	Alfonso
Algenis Perez Soto	...	Miguel
Santo Silvestre	...	Umpire #1
Emmanuel Nanita Carvajal	...	Reyes
Cesar Emilio Minaya C.	...	Pedro
Joendy Pena Brown	...	Marcos
Kelvin Leonardo Garcia	...	Salvador
Marcos Rosa	...	Sanchez
Karl Bury	...	Rudy
Zaida Alexandra Hernandez	...	Erica
Lilin Soto Gonzales	...	Abuela
Dioni Feliciano	...	Luis
Teodosia Sanchez Reyes	...	Carmen
Walky Alvarez	...	Sofia

Storyline

By 2008, more than 25 percent of major league baseball players were born in Latin America. At 19, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a serious kid from the Dominican Republic, signs with Kansas City. He flies to Phoenix for tryouts and is sent to the Class A team "The Swing" in the fictional town of Bridgetown, Iowa, where he lives with a farm family. Thus begins his odyssey: leaving his mom and girlfriend; living in an alien culture; learning English; overcoming jitters; working hard; achieving early success; navigating friendships, occasional racism, and a woman's mixed signals; dealing with an injury; trying performance-enhancing drugs; and, searching for his place in the world. Will he make it to the Majors; will he play in New York?

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | nickname as title | title directed by female | caribbean sea | baseball | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some sexuality and brief drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

After this film was shot, the name of the team in Iowa was changed from the Swing of the Quad Cities to its former team name of the Quad Cities River Bandits.

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Goofs

The radio station broadcasting Bridgetown Swing games Is identified by the call letters WKDF. Iowa is west of the Mississippi River, where radio and TV station call letters usually begin with K. WKDF, in fact, is the call sign of a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Quotes

Frank: Life gives you lots of opportunities. Baseball only gives you one.

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Connections

Referenced in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Monsters vs Aliens/The Haunting in Connecticut/12 Rounds (2009)

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Soundtracks

Ciego De Amor
Written by Romeo Santos (as Anthony "Romeo" Santos)
Performed by Aventura featuring Anthony Santos
Courtesy of Premium Latin Music, Inc.

User Reviews

"SUGAR--The Sweet Smell of Success (at Being True to Yourself)"!

..........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA....and ORLANDO, FL

More often than not, baseball stories are focused on the guy who manages to get all the way to the Majors. Sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that for every spot filled on a major league roster, there are scores, if not hundreds, of players who get sidelined somewhere along the way in their quest to make it to the big leagues! You don't have to like Baseball to enjoy SUGAR, but if you do, you're likely to enjoy it all the more. You have to give HBO films credit....Gutsy move to make a baseball movie that...

A) Is about 70% in Spanish

B) Manages to make the viewer empathize with the isolation & culture clash experienced by someone who arrives here not speaking any English and....

C) Morphs completely into a different movie genre! Algenis Perez Soto plays SUGAR. I'd venture a guess that more likely, he IS SUGAR! IMDb PRO lists this as his only acting gig, ever. Apparently, he is undecided as to whether or not to continue his career in acting.

Amazingly, Mr. Perez's contact E-mail address also appears. Here it is: [e-mail] (Hope that you find the address Helpful!) SUGAR also boasts some great Dominican Merengue music; new, exotic third-world locations; and an on-screen collision between Dominican and Mid-Western Iowan cultures...Quite fascinating to watch!

9*...ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Dominican Republic

Language:

Spanish English

Release Date:

24 April 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Dominican Project

Filming Locations:

Burlington, Iowa, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$60,140, 5 April 2009

Gross USA:

$1,082,124

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,144,438

Company Credits

Production Co:

HBO Films, Journeyman Pictures, Hunting Lane Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1