‘Too Much Sugar’ review: Robert Greene delivers a clear-eyed portrait of family dysfunction and filmmaking as therapy

Dir: Robert Greene. US. 2026. 99mins

Continuing his exploration of what he calls “collaborative, therapeutic documentary cinema”, director Robert Greene (Procession, Kate Plays Christine) pulls back the curtain on a small-town Missourian’s life, with his complicated subject’s active participation. Too Much Sugar is partly a nonfiction portrait of working-class everyman Ryan Holliger, but it also serves as an opportunity for Holliger and those closest to him to shoot their own narrative films, often inspired by their anxieties and aspirations. What emerges is an immensely moving look at troubled fathers, dysfunctional relationships and the deep regrets that even movie magic cannot erase.

Greene offers no easy answers

Too Much Sugar premieres in Venice’s Horizons section, and fans of Greene’s thoughtful earlier work – which also includes Bisbee ‘17 (2018) – should be keen to see his latest interrogation of the thin line that divides fiction and reality. Smart indie distributors should lean on Greene’s reputation as an inquisitive, compassionate hybrid filmmaker to court discerning arthouse crowds.

Describing himself as a carpenter, fighter and the father of six children with five different women, Ryan Holliger, who is in his mid-40s, resides in Moberly, Missouri, with his long-term partner Amanda Sanner, who has welcomed his other children into her home. Trying to be a good dad to all of his kids, he longs to make a fiction film that will illustrate how much he loves them. With the help of Greene, who got to know his subject when their sons played on the same basketball team, Holliger starts working on a script. Meanwhile, Greene interviews Sanner, Holliger’s children and Holliger’s best friend Michael “AccRite” Midgyett to hear what films they would want to make, ultimately shooting a segment of each. 

Greene has frequently invited his subjects to collaborate with him – most recently on Procession, in which male survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic priests constructed cinematic re-enactments of their abuse as a way to heal. Too Much Sugar’s credits indicate the documentary was co-created with the participants, and Greene does not always make it immediately clear whether certain sequences are real or scripted until their true nature is finally revealed. 

But Too Much Sugar is not seeking to trick the audience. but rather to engage in a dialogue regarding how fiction can help individuals process personal pain. Evocative shots of Moberly suggest it is not an economically thriving community, and the people in Holliger’s life either cannot afford or choose not to attend therapy. But the idea of making a movie appeals to Holliger, who encourages Midgyett to create one as well. 

Certainly, both men have demons to wrestle. Holliger and Midgyett each spent years incarcerated – Midgyett’s father was in prison himself when his son ended up behind bars – but Midgyett is also wrestling with the guilt and sorrow of losing his 16-year-old son DeQiran in a 2023 mass shooting. In addition, Holliger’s six children have differing opinions of their father, not all of them glowing. Some of his kids are excited about making their own films, while others, sadly, do not feel that their lives are special enough to merit one. 

As is often the case with Greene’s projects, Too Much Sugar exhibits considerable empathy toward its subjects while being clear-eyed about their shortcomings. Bald and buff, Holliger carries himself as a tough-love motivator – especially when training his sons to be boxers – but grows more vulnerable when admitting to being unfaithful to Sanner, the only woman who has stuck by him.. We see his genuine efforts to be a responsible father and partner, but we also catch glimpses of his volcanic temper and hard-headed masculinity. In the documentary’s scripted sequences, Holliger is awkward and stiff playing himself, while his children derisively note that being the star of his own film merely feeds into their father’s terrible narcissism. Greene offers no opinion on that damning accusation, leaving the audience to ponder the question.

It can be tempting to praise Too Much Sugar for its illumination of “everyday lives,” a condescending compliment that demeans people not usually featured on the big screen. But Greene, who himself grew up in a working-class family, resists ennobling or judging Holliger and those around him. Maybe that explains why Too Much Sugar’s fiction films are less compelling and revealing than the moments when Greene simply spends time with his subjects. And as heartbreaking as Holliger and Midgyett can be, it is Sanner who eventually becomes Too Much Sugar’s emotional centre — a loyal mother and soulmate who has seen Holliger at his best and his worst, never quite sure which version of him she will encounter next.