The only sports film bold enough to depict self-sabotaging a potential career in the major leagues in a completely positive light.
I could use all of the superlatives in the world, and it still wouldn’t justify how much this masterpiece means to me, so I’ll just go ahead and link this wonderful writeup by Reese, as well as my log from May 2020. Either way, it genuinely hurts me how woefully underseen this film is.
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck are some of our most humane, thoughtful, and bafflingly unsung artists, and few filmmakers have a greater understanding of human beings and the human condition than they do. I greatly hope they can make a new film soon, and can continue to make films forever.
EDIT (02/01/2022): As of writing this, Sugar is now streaming on HBO Max. If you have access and haven’t seen it yet, do so ASAP.