"Fresh" is a co-production between the United States of America and France from 1994, but I am not sure at all where the French impact comes from as this is a film as American as it gets really given the subject and people who worked on it in front of and behind the camera. Let's look at the basics: The writer and director here is Boaz Yakin, who was not even 30 when he made this film. It was his first directing credit and third writing credit. Judging from the film's success and his age back then, you surely could have thought that he would have a bigger career afterwards and I mean it is not awful what he did in the almost 30 years since then, but he peaked early apparently and did not really manage to follow up. Yakin is by the way from New York, but my guess is he has Turkish roots too. Anyway, it is not too important. I already described the age of this film and this one will have its 30th anniversary in 2024 indeed, so maybe it happened already if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. Of course, this was also not the occasion on which I watched this film, but it was part of a retrospective on Black America in the movies and well it does fit in nicely from this perspective and I am not surprised they included it. I am more surprised that I never really heard of it before, even if there are at least two actors in here that I like quite a bit. The first would be Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson of course, who plays the protagonist's father. I could also say who plays the title character's father as the name Fresh is indeed the name of the boy. Or nickname. He says early on that it is something that only his friends call him when another character calls him by that name. One who is not his friend at all. And the second actor I am referring to is Giancarlo Esposito that most people today know from "Breaking Bad" and I must also say that it took me quite a bit to understand who he is in this film, even if it was a crucial character. One of the most central characters even if we look at what happens at the end. It is a bit entertaining though how you will always immediately identify Jackson, but Esposito not at all. I mean I saw him in a Spike Lee film the same day and did not recognize him at all there. He had quite the transformation as he got older.
Anyway, as I said I did not know much before seeing this film, only the two actors and good ratings that got me curious, but I did not expect a film that was really so shocking and sobering from any perspective. And not light at all. I mean if we ignore for a second that the main character was working as a drug courier in his quarter when the film begins, it starts mostly harmless. He has his best friend, he is a smart kid, he even has a girl he likes and she likes him too, but yeah things really go south from there. The girl is shot on a basketball court when a man whose ego took a blow because a kid had better than him pulls a gun and shoots said kid and accidentally also shoots Fresh's crush. And as for his bets friend, who has some Asian blood in him, well they are really close as you can see when Fresh tries to somehow help the boy get away before he is shot in cold blood by some mysterious figures. Don't mistake the scene before that with the officer in the subway train for something that shows that Fresh did not care about his buddy. On the contrary, what he said there made sure that the officer would not take his friend to the station, even if the Asian kid does not understand that, but oh well.. now we know that if he had taken him to the station, he would have saved his life. Unknowingly, of course. The killing still could have happened a few days later then. And the Asian kid likes Fresh too as we see when the girl is shot and Fresh stays there and the Asian boy tries to convince him to run before he heads off without him. It was probably these two key incidents that broke something in Fresh, something that could not be fixed and repaired anymore and reflected an amount of loss that no boy should have to experience. The result was also the scene in which Fresh kills his dog. I am unsure what to make of this scene. Maybe there was no deeper meaning and he just had to let the violence out. Maybe it was because he did not want the dog to take part in these bloody dogfights anymore and die there at some point or maybe it was just because he knew he would be leaving soon and nobody would take care of the dog or maybe it was because he knew the dog could make him vulnerable, make him unsure if his decision is the right one. Or his decisions I should probably say with all that happens in the last hour.
This film is also a great watch for those who like the game of chess and for me personally, this definitely helped too. The connection there is crucial if you look at the talks between his father and the boy on numerous occasions and how all he tries to do there is make the right moves and this is just as true when he makes sure that the lives of all these criminals around him have to end. Or at least their freedom comes to an end and they are arrested. This includes planting drugs and firearms under the bed of the guy he wants to get rid of eventually. The king if we are going back to the chess approach. And that is Esposito's character in this scenario. And the boy does succeed. We understand his mother has a double-digit number of children and mouths to feed and she cannot deal anymore with Fresh and his troubles and there is talk about giving him to some institution, but even there Fresh comes up with his own plans and these involve most likely a witness protection program. This way, he even saves his sister who is a drug addict by the way. He does not care too much about leaving his siblings and mother, but he does care a lot about this one sister who has been going through a lot as well. And he also cares about his father as we see towards the end, even if he is not father-of-the-year candidate, but in a way he was the one who taught Fresh how to make the right moves. On the chessboard or in real life. You can see how much he cares when he starts crying for the first time pretty much and this is when the movie ends and it hurts him that the only way to get out is by leaving his dad behind. That was one of the most touching moments the film had to offer. Speaking of chess again, I must say I really hate lightning chess or whatever the name is. It already stresses me out to only watch them play like this. I need time to plan my moves when I play, but yeah there are other references here. Some names are mentioned as well, most of all the legendary Bobby Fischer.
What else can be said about this film? It is a fairly long film and much closer to the two-hour mark than to the 1.5-hour mark, even closer to two hours than to 100 minutes, but still not an extremely long movie. I would say the running time is accurate and how it should be and I would not have cut more than five minutes. Admittedly, if I have to look for flaws here, then I would say that maybe, as smart as the kid may be, it is just not realistic how he is literally such a perfect schemer that he manages to take them all out one-by-one. And also that he survives it all. Nobody, not even 99% of adults, would have been this good in pulling all the right strings, so maybe the film is not the most realistic overall, but it is not too difficult to look beyond and ignore that for the most part because it is an entertaining watch, even if this is probably not the best adjective to describe the movie. Awe-inducing sounds fine. You will not find any spectacular careers here with the exception of the two I mentioned early on. The one who plays the cop that helps the boy or wants to help the boy was in "Twilight" at least". For lead actor Sean Nelson this was not the first role of his career, but the first big-screen role and still the defining performance of his career. He even got a bit of awards recognition for it. Most of the other went to Yakin. Esposito also got in once and the film itself also made it to Cannes. But as for Nelson, this will probably stay the biggest role of his career. He appeared on many television series in the last ten or even twenty years, but usually only one or two episodes per show. Still nice to see he keeps acting, even if he has turned into a bit of a journeyman. He is in his early/mid 40s now. Who knows what will come, so I shall not judge too early.
In any case, I don't regret it that I went to check out this film. It was probably not at all what I expected, but it is definitely worth seeing and my positive recommendation was never in doubt here. It is still definitely not a film you wanna see if you are in the mood for a feel-good film. Other than that, it is a good choice and I wish the room could have been more packed during my screening. But from what I have seen so far, the entire retrospective was not exactly a crowd magnet so far (except "Do the Right Thing"), bit I will wait my final judgment there as well until I have seen some of the other films on my list. It is still awesome that something like this, a film like this is shown on the big screen again. Shown on the big screen in a country far away from America. That is almost it then. Let me say before I come to the end that the acting is good all along here and I am still surprised that neither Nelson nor Yakin didn't have bigger careers. If you really want me to name a moment that made me smile when there wasn't really any, I would perhaps go with the scene in which the protagonist beats the random guy at chess there in the park and the man clearly underestimated the kid and of course the boy's father was also watching there, so in a way you can say that he also wants his dad to be proud of him. The tears in the last shot of the movie are telling enough and imply the same. So yeah, it's a thumbs-up from me for this actually really decent movie. Not a must-see, but I say: Go watch it.
