Sugar

Who knows how Sugar ended up in my Netflix queue, but it did, and it wound up here on June 11, sitting atop the TV hutch all that time while I bided my time. I think I watched about the first ten minutes of the film before ejecting the disk. Perhaps the worst movie ever made. It's a super-cheapie B&W indie film with no sound effects, no soundtrack, and no dialogue. None. At least, not in the first ten or so minutes. You want to watch a silent movie about a girl in a filthy apartment who re-arranges the filth in her room for no apparent reason, you watch Sugar. Me, no frickin' way. What's the movie about? Who knows, you'd have to watch the thing to find out, and since you get no hints up front other than the theoretical tease with the body in the wall, well, the filmmakers just haven't done their job in setting up the story. Experimental? Nah. Horse dung dressed up as meatloaf.

I was not prepared for the style of filmography given the boxing of the movie, but it was a very pleasant surprise. I think that you would have to really have an open mind to independent films to enjoy this movie. It's a refreshing change to the typical "hollywood" style psychological thriller. It was an interesting approach to the inside of the human brain and how it reacts to extreme circumstances. There is minimal dialog, but I don't feel that it is necessary at all. I thought that it could be improved further if all the dialog was non-sensical or garbled. I really enjoyed the switching from colour to black and white film. It made it difficult to discern what was reality and fabricated. I liked it.

This movie is a weapon of mass destruction or at the very least, a fine torture device. I must say it was VERY intriguing at the beginning- there's a petite woman holed up in a run down top floor apartment that is hot as hell. We hear the steady whine of the various appliances and it is very quiet. The contents of the refrigerator are strewn on the floor- we wonder why- then we see she is inside the fridge curled up to cool down. And the rest of this movie is just like that- makes you curious as to why something is the way it is- and then you find out in a very underwhelming visual presentation.

I liken the feelings this movie emotes to the feeling you get when you are coming down hard after a very long nite of partying, every part of your body is worn out and ready to fall apart but for some reason you are simply too tired to sleep. You haunt yourself in an ethereal existence of non-being as no real thought or action occurs- it's just you sitting there wishing you could sleep or wishing you had more energy and not knowing how to pursue either endeavor so you just sit there like a zombie hating life.

That's this director in a nutshell- he had an idea but had no idea whatsoever how to pursue it so in true student art film cookie cutter method he does something stupid to make the audience not understand this film so he can feel like he is smart by confusing them. Baby, smart don't come from stupid- plain and simple. This movie is dumb, boring and torturous to attempt to bear. It will scar you and make you want that time of you life back. It fully sucks in every way conceivable. Have I made myself clear?

I wonder if I did something bad to get this in my recommended movies by Netflix. What a waste of time! Unlike others, I kept watching hoping SOMETHING would redeem this torturous thing but no....horrible to the end. In reading other reviews (post watching the movie, I just don't understand how people could enjoy this. I enjoy well done unusual films (see Pi) and others. Even the foreign ones, especially small releases like movies from Iceland or Soviet Union. This was an intentionally pseudo-angst-filled movie....this was just plonk all the way around. I wouldn't even call it pretentious, it's just bad. Please find something worth your time to watch, believe me, you'll thank me.

It's rare that I personally see films that boarder on experimental and narrative that actually work for me. "Sugar" is a definite exception to this rule. This film was interesting without being obvious and used devices, such as a mixture of B&W and color, to their full potential for once. I wouldn't dream of trying to go into what this film is about as it will likely be translated differently by everyone that sees it; that's part of it's charm. Hopefully this film will receive some sort of release, but don't expect to see it at the mega-plex near you any time soon. Samara Golden does an exceptional job in the lead role and stays compelling throughout even without dialog while appearing in almost every frame of the film. The craftsmanship is unbeatable and I consider this film a must see for anyone that that is really interested in the medium of film.