Sugar – 7.5

This movie humanizes Major League baseball players in a way few others have, and gives meaning to Ozzie Guillen’s rant, earlier this summer, about the lack of support offered Latino players, compared to Asians. More to the point, it is a positive view of (illegal) immigration, supporting the view that these are good people, just trying to better their families’ lives, hurting no one. But best, it is an honest character study of a gifted athlete, lost in a foreign culture, who finds a way that defies the normal melodramatic arc we expect from the movies. Oddly, the least realistic aspect of the film is the way the actors play baseball. (Netflix)