Sugar is a 2004 independent Canadian romantic drama film co-written and directed by John Palmer, and starring Andre Noble, Brendan Fehr, Marnie McPhail, Maury Chaykin, and Sarah Polley.
Noble, who received strong reviews for his performance in Sugar, died just a few weeks after the film's debut.
After a while, the two begin kissing passionately in an abandoned flat, but Butch stops the encounter and leaves, declining Cliff's suggestion that they get coffee together.
In order to muster courage, Cliff gets "fucking high" on speed, and he and Butch arrive at the apartment of the man, who says he only wants to vicariously observe the two men have sex.
Shortly into the conversation, Butch asks if her if he could buy the Ritalin she is prescribed for her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but she tells him she does not have access to it, and that it is dispensed by the school nurse.
Cliff reluctantly agrees, and arrives to find Butch kissing an older man, Greg, whom he says he now lives with.
[5] Approximately a month following the film's commercial release, star Andre Noble died of accidental poisoning after ingesting aconitum during a camping trip.
[6] Dennis Harvey of Variety praised the lead performances of Noble and Fehr, adding: "Sugar sports the expected outre elements — sex, drugs, reckless self-destruction — but also has streaks of tenderness, pathos, and directorial skill...
Despite [the] tale’s harsh aspects and eventual tragic turn, Sugar maintains an almost whimsical tenor that reflects Cliff’s innocently accepting walk-on-the-wide-side perspective.
Sugar plays down the melodrama, in that AIDS is barely mentioned, the acceptance from Cliff's family is almost assumed and the excessive drug use is hardly condemned (though it's not glamorised either).
And while at times it becomes unclear whether certain events are displayed merely for shock value (some scenes border on soft-core pornography), it is clear that Sugar does an exceptional job at humanising characters that rarely receive this treatment.