Videos to Go: Political thriller available on DVD

"Sugar"—The writing and directing team that created the Oscar nominated drama "Half-Nelson" delivered another small jewel of a movie to theaters earlier this year. "Sugar" is a moving tale of one young man's journey as he tries to use his baseball talent to move beyond the poverty and desperation of his homeland. But will his pride, his "athletic arrogance," be his biggest asset or his undoing?

Miguel Santos is a supremely talented young man from a dirt poor village in the Dominican Republic. For decades, the way out of the island's grinding poverty has been baseball. Hundreds of teens have departed the country with dreams of major league stardom in their eyes. Some have succeeded and Miguel, nicknamed "Sugar" for the sweetness of his pitching ability, is the latest-and, perhaps, one of the best.

We follow his journey from a big league team's baseball academy operation, where the foreign players get a rudimentary education in playing the game at the highest level, as well as enough English to operate on the field.

Soon enough, Miguel's skills take him to a small town in Iowa, where he establishes himself as a rising star on the local minor league team. Far more difficult is his adjustment to the ways of the sponsor family he lives with.

Homesickness, miscommunication and an unexpected injury soon begin to test Miguel's resolve. The rehabilitation process challenges his pride, as coaches and managers want to limit the number of pitches he throws and not let him pitch complete games, as he always did back home.

Back home, the girl he loves seems to be wavering and the "sponsors" who've been helping out his family seem to be getting impatient about his rise through the minors. Pressures and temptations begin to mount on and off the field, leading Miguel in a surprising direction.

Co-screenwriters and directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have crafted a terrific story with the edge of a documentary and the excitement of a sports story. The film expertly captures the desperation of life in the Dominican as well as the hold baseball has on the young athletes there.

The film's smallest moments ring true, in large part because the filmmakers used former minor leaguers from the Dominican in many of the roles. Algenis Perez Soto, who makes his acting debut as Miguel, displays solid skills in the movie's game sequences and impressive acting talent throughout the film.

"Sugar" is the kind of sports film that satisfies diehard fans with its realistic feel and mood, while capturing the interest of non-baseball lovers with a strong story full of emotions and situations they can connect with.

Extras on the DVD include deleted scenes, documentary shorts on Dominican players in the major leagues and short features on the making of the film. The film has several subtitled sequences in Spanish. "Sugar" is also available in the Blu-Ray format. MPAA Rating: R for profanity, drug content and sexual situations.

Joe's Rating: Four (****) Stars.

Also released September 1:

"State of Play"—Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren are the Oscar-winning "jewels in the crown" of this solidly crafted thriller, adapted from a BBC min-series. Crowe is a top investigative reporter for a Washington newspaper who struggles to prove his best friend, a rising congressman on a powerful committee (Affleck) isn't involved in the death of an aide with whom he was having an affair. Crowe is pressured on all sides: by his executive editor, (Mirren) who wants the story immediately, regardless of the congressman's guilt or innocence. An ambitious but inexperienced blogger for the paper (Rachel McAdams) is also on the story, against Crowe's wishes. The congressman's wife (Robin Wright Penn) has her own reasons for helping Crowe, while the key to what's going on maybe a drug addicted PR man with a past (Jason Bateman) who's gone underground.

Director Kevin McDonald ("The Last King of Scotland") does a good job of utilizing the Washington area locations at which he shot the film to give it a sense of danger. Though it plays fast and loose with questions of conflict of interest and the ways in which newspaper journalism works, the major players draw you deeply into the story. Bateman is particularly strong and his scenes late in the film with Crowe and McAdams are quite affecting.

"State of Play" is no "Three Days of the Condor," but it's a couple of hours reasonably well spent in front of the flat screen.

Extras on the Blu-Ray edition include deleted scenes and a "making of" feature. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for profanity, violence drug content and sexual situations.

Joe's Rating: Three (***) Stars.

Other recent DVD releasers worth renting include: Disney's "Earth," a fascinating look at migrating animal families (Rated G); the delightfully maze-like romantic comedy/thriller "Duplicity," starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen (rated PG-13) and the offbeat comedy "Sunshine Cleaning," starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn and Alan Arkin. It's from the producers of "Little Miss Sunshine." (rated R)

Joe Barber's entertainment reviews and reports can be heard Fridays through Sundays on the WTOP-FM Radio Network (103.5, 103.9, 107.7 & Wtop.com.) He can be seen regularly on WETA-TV's Around Town and Fridays on Comcast Sports Net's Washington Post Live!