Sugar
HBO Films | Release Date: April 3, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It is both sad and hopeful, but the film's sorrow and its optimism arise from its rarest and most thrilling quality, which is its deep and humane honesty. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In its unhurried fashion, Sugar can take its place with the best baseball movies. Where most focus on the grand slam, this one's about the life that surrounds the game and everything that comes after. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
This one slice of the American experience amounts to one of the best films of the year. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Sugar is that sweetest of films: A sensitive and memorable story that surprises at every turn. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
As the film plays out its melancholy story, we realize that what we are watching is far rarer than the usual sports flick. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A baseball movie, a stranger-in-a-strange-land movie, a movie about real people facing real challenges in the real world, Sugar is all that and more. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A film of rare intelligence, beauty and compassion. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A moving, surprising and provocative baseball flick that rises immediately to No. 1 with a bullet on my personal list. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The result is raw and riveting. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Algenis Perez Soto plays the character so openly, so naturally, that an interesting thing happens: Baseball is only the backdrop, not the subject. This is a wonderful film. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Sugar is a near-great movie with qualities more unusual than some all-time classics. It resists cliche at every turn and puts something solid in its place: raw yet controlled observation that gives the film the form of a flexing muscle. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The film's style is so ''objective'' it's a bit subdued, yet this is a sports drama of total originality, as well as the most authentic inside view of the immigrant experience the movies have given us in quite a while. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Instead of hitting all the usual beats, Sugar just moseys in a mostly delightful way. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
There's quality, wit and emotion throughout. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Sympathetic, genial and exceedingly wholesome, it's a film that, once seen, will permanently and favorably influence the way viewers regard the characters' real-life counterparts. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
Without a trace of didacticism, Boden and Fleck portray the insidious details of exploitation and hollow American maxims. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
The most remarkable thing Sugar does is give American viewers a sense of how our country must seem to a newly arrived immigrant, without caricaturing or condescending to either guest or host. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
As good as it is because of the care and skill writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck bring to it, gifts that were visible in their first film, "Half Nelson," which earned a lead actor Oscar nomination for Ryan Gosling. Read full review
80
NPRBob Mondello
The filmmakers have mostly cast from Dominican playing fields rather than from acting studios -- Algenis Perez Soto, the accomplished first-time performer who plays Miguel Sugar Santos, was himself a teen ballplayer -- so game and practice sequences have an easy authenticity from the start. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This is a drama of shifting values and compromised ideals, arriving at a view of life that's wise, complicated, and tinged with melancholy. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
A gripping look at the immigrant experience, with small moments as important - and visually arresting - as any on the baseball diamond. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Mainly, though, the film's strength is reportorial, sensitively exploring a theme that has grown ever more prominent with the globalization of sport. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The price of the production's integrity is a leisurely pace -- but it's a worthwhile one. Though Sugar demands patience, it deserves attention. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
A thoughtful drama about guys who have a moment in the big time before returning home to an odd reflected glory. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Algenis Perez Soto was a baseball player in real life, which helps to explain his sensitive, understated performance as Sugar. But he's let down by a manipulative script recycled from dozens of sports and immigrant movies. At least it dispenses with a Hollywood ending. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Sugar is a curiosity – too somber for a picaresque, too arm's-length for much emotional effect – and while it's interesting, it's never truly absorbing. Read full review
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