Friday, April 03, 2009

"Sugar" Opens Today (in NYC and LA...)


As someone commented over on Cruiser's blog, the film "Sugar," which was filmed partially in the Quad Cities, opens today in New York and Los Angeles. I've posted the trailer before, but just to be thorough, it can be found here. It makes the movie look pretty good.

I read a bunch of reviews yesterday, and literally all of them were positive about the movie. You can find 20+ of them using this Google News search for "Sugar."

One of the better quotes I ran across somewhat reassures me that Davenport won't be presented as a hick town, but Burlington, and possibly the entire state might be in danger of being smeared with that brush.

From this review at Hollywood and Fine:
But the film also deals with the larger issues of being dropped in the middle of nowhere – in this case, Davenport, Iowa, which was renamed Bridgetown for the film – with no support system and little maturity to cope with loneliness and insecurity. Where better to make that notion cinematic than to plunk Dominican ballplayers into the relatively undiverse rural American midwest?

“When we were choosing a place, we wanted a contrast as big as possible, one that isolated them as much as possible,” Boden says.

Not that Davenport itself was the perfect fit: “Davenport is actually a more diverse place,” Fleck says. “We wanted Miguel to be isolated, so we modeled the town on Burlington, Iowa. It’s just that all the resources we needed were in Davenport. So we shot there and made up a town name.”
So Davenport isn't the way they're making Bridgetown look, but Bridgetown physically looks a heck of a lot like Davenport. Its ironic that Modern Woodmen Park sits in a political precinct that went for Obama over McCain 80%-20%, but may end up looking in the film like its in a more prejudiced small town.

Oh well, hopefully people will be so blown away by the beautiful scenery and the friendly (if outdated) people shown in the movie that they'll come here and see the real Iowa. Just ask Dyersville what a good baseball movie can do for tourism.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are all waiting to hear about the seminar that you attended at the Waterfront Convention Center held for all the little Per Mar Guards who are wannabe cops.

Matt said...

i have indie film friends in seattle who just emailed me about Sugar this morning. the buzz definitely seems to be very positive. i can't wait to see it.

Shelley said...

There was a front page article on Huffington Post by Lou Melendez about Sugar. Its on the Entertainment page now. Not smart enough to link it for you.

Anonymous said...

We'll hope for the best regarding how the community comes off, but having a hit movie shot here with one of our iconic bridges in the poster backdrop is good PR no matter what.

Anonymous said...

no post on the actual big news in Iowa... typical

QuadCityImages said...

Apparently you're mistaking this blog for a news website? There are plenty of other places on the internet for both sides of that issue to shout at each other.

Anonymous said...

Conservative Demo here:
"pparently you're mistaking this blog for a news website? There are plenty of other places on the internet for both sides of that issue to shout at each other."
QCI
----------

And boy, shout they are too. The several Iowa based Republican blogs are top-heavy today with the shouters. Funny thing tho, mid-morning coffee at McD and eavesdropping on the several koffee-klatch conversations going on yielded nary a word about that big subject. YAWN.

Unknown said...

From the couple reviews I read, I don't think we should take it as a knock on Iowa that they chose to film this movie here. If you take an 18 year old Dominican and plunk him down with any of these minor league teams, they'd probably go through most of the same issues.

Anonymous said...

Other than people that know this area or movie geeks that have to know everything about the movie, nobody will know or care that the film was made here. We have people like the first poster to make the area look bad. Like Pioneer said, it could be almost anywhere and have the same issues.

What would be nice is if the film makers were treated well, maybe other film makers would give the area a chance.

Nitrous55

Anonymous said...

Was the film named after the SUGARS downtown book store and adult dating service?

Anonymous said...

har har - fortunately they're long gone. At any rate, people DO care where a movie is shot when it's particularly beautiful.

The riverfront shots will be great PR for us because the people who care will go out of their way to find out where this thing was filmed.

Regardless of how important you find this to be, you can't argue it's a bad thing that our City's landscape is being featured to a nation-wide audience.

Anonymous said...

Sugar is getting amazing reviews.

And I live in NYC. But I'm conflicted about going to see it as it's playing at one of my least favorite cinemas. Do I wait for Netflix or pay $24 to see it on a not-all-that-big screen and have the film interrupted by subway rumble every 10 minutes?

Anonymous said...

Oh, and a much higher quality trailer is available from Apple's website.

Anonymous said...

Did I screw up that link?

QuadCityImages said...

Yeah, you linked to Apple.com...

Seriously though, I'm starting to agree that the movie will be a good thing. I'm not as much worried about Davenport getting any kind of reputation about it, but I know the movie leaves no question that they're in Iowa, so I just worry about it reinforcing stereotypes about the state. Of course, the whole marriage thing may have shook people's stereotypes enough that it doesn't matter anyway.

Even the trailer makes our ballpark look amazing, so I can imagine how many great shots are in the movie.

Anonymous said...

Holy smokes! $24 for a movie? I thought it was bad to spend $9 for a medium root beer and a small popcorn last night for Fast & the Furious 4.

Nitrous55

Anonymous said...

Apparently there are over three dozen movies wanting/planning on filming in IA over the next year or so thanks in part with the HUGE tax breaks IA is giving producers. If things go well the IA Film Office might actually have to get a real staff instead of the governor appointed 'commissioner'

Anonymous said...

$24 is for tickets for two people (most movie theaters in NYC are now $12/person, not including online ticketing fees, which are often necessary for popular films).