Sugar, the tale of the "Real American Dream"

All of our usual tales end with the hero getting exactly what they wished for one way our another. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck take a different approach and show the success in failure. As the film Rocky did before it, Sugar focuses on a young athlete from Dominican Republic finally getting a chance to pitch in the American baseball league. Our title character gives us an in depth look on the system of minor league baseball and how it only takes one slip to go from star player to reserve. Suffering being put through injuries, fatigue, and hardship to the point where steroids couldn't even help him survive one game. This gives Sugar the final push to quit the team and make a life in New York, searching for his old friend that also had a falling out with his old team as well. During his time in New York he gets a job at a restaurant and befriends a carpenter that lets him play for his company team. At the end of the movie, you see Sugar in the company uniform laughing. To some this can be seen as an anti climatic ending to a underrated movie, but I feel that the ending gives a wink to the audience that may have flown over heads. Sugar's main point was to establish the American Dream, and to the viewers it might seem like he failed the dream he once had. Except, in the end of the movie Sugar was happy on the baseball team, something he hasn't been since he started  playing for the knights. Happiness, that's the true American Dream forgotten and lost in translation after all these years. We nowadays assume living the American Dream is getting rich or becoming famous, but that isn't the case. The American Drean was to find happiness and serenity, making a living the way you want to. Overtime we associated this with money and fame, but that's only because we aspire to it. So in conclusion I feel that Sugars ending is a breath of fresh air that I haven't inhaled since the first Rocky, showing that you don't need to be rich to achieve the American Dream. A lesson I feel was long overdue, and that America desperately needs to see.