73
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Explores an unheralded but emotionally affecting issue in a straight-forward and engaging manner.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterWhile the political implications of the film are provocative, "Sugar" also happens to be an impressive cinematic achievement. This picture has a visual sweep that many docu films lack; the plantations and nearby towns are vividly evoked.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceOut of this sorry tale of human trafficking emerges a fascinating portrait of this handsome, pugnacious, one-man NGO, who left a cushy life with his patrician Anglo-Spanish family to work with Mother Theresa and devote himself to the oppressed.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirIt's still difficult to find accurate information about where and when Bill Haney's profoundly disturbing documentary The Price of Sugar will be opening commercially in the United States. Partly this is because the Vicini family, sugar barons of the Dominican Republic, have hired Patton Boggs, a major Washington law firm, to try to halt the film's release, or at least paint it as slanted and defamatory.
- Still, as compelling as The Price of Sugar is, it also represents a squandered opportunity. A stronger connection could have been made between the film's subject and our own responsibility as consumers.
- 75New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThe film is unabashedly supportive of Father Hartley, presenting him as a stubborn saint, and depicts the wealthy owners as soulless villains. Presumably they have a different story to tell, but we wouldn't know: When the camera's on, none can be found.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoThis documentary has no bells and whistles; Bill Haney, the director and co-writer (with Peter Rhodes), sticks to the facts.
- 70VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonA solid and affecting piece of work.
- 63Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisOffers yet another example of how a lot of what we consume is produced at somebody else's expense. In this case, it's sugar.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenLike most documentary polemics, it simplifies the issues it confronts and selects facts that bolster its black-and-white, heroes-and-villains view of raw economic power.