Fresh (1994)
First screened and reviewed in early 1998 / Scroll down for updated thoughts in 2024
Director: Boaz Yakin. Cast: Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, N'Bushe Wright, Luis Lantigua, Ron Brice, Jean LaMarre, Anthony Thomas, Cheryl Freeman, Natima Bradley, José Zúñiga, Anthony Ruiz, Yul Vazquez, Davenia McFadden. Screenplay: Boaz Yakin. VOR:③
In scenography and performance, Fresh doesn't always exude an organic grasp of its world. In plot complexity and POV, it's more ambitious.
Original Review, 1998:
Boaz Yakin's Fresh is a film that almost defies you not to be moved. There is considerable power in its story of a 12-year-old boy who has already found steady employment as a drug-runner for kingpins all around his New York City neighborhood. There
is also, however, in the film's reliance on symbolism, its frequently cartoonish acting, and his constant lamentations for innocence lost, a significant amount of mawkishness. Fresh takes itself so seriously, and most reviewers have given it such extravagant praise, that any criticism of Yakin's film risks drawing charges of insensitivity or inattention. With all of the above problems, however, and without a fully-formed perspective on its protagonist, Fresh remains a picture that is more powerful and affecting in concept than in actual execution.
Sean Nelson stars as Fresh (né Michael), who, along with his older sister Nicki (N'Bushe
Wright), is one of 11 adopted foster children cared for in the home of an urban saint named
Aunt Frances (Cheryl Freeman). Early in the picture, Nicki packs her things to move out,
much to Fresh's and Frances' chagrin; their chagrin would increase if they realized, as
Fresh eventually does, that Nicki has taken up residence with a convenience store owner who
keeps her loyal with his constant supply of snort and smack. Fresh—whose mother we presume
is either dead or permanently departed, and whose father (Samuel L. Jackson) makes just
enough money playing chess in Central Park for the upkeep on his trailer home—has no other
natural family left besides Nicki, and he thus decides to devise a plan that will either
restore her to Frances' safe haven or relocate the both of them to a safer, friendlier
locale.
That's all easier said than done, however, because Fresh has certain professional
commitments to stay put. A trusted runner, broker, and retriever of drug deliveries for
local thug Esteban (Giancarlo Esposito), Fresh lives his whole life in obedience to men
with bodyguards and firearms always in reach. Esteban uses Fresh because his youth and his
quiet demeanor make him unsuspicious to most neighborhood police and to rival drug-runners,
though before Fresh concludes, its protagonist's services are recruited by other
heavies in the district.
Yakin outlines for us a scenario of undeniable sadness; how can we help but feel distressed
that such a young kid could already be so tightly involved in traffic of this kind?
Fresh's misfortune, however, is that Yakin depends on our basic, immediate empathy
to propel us through a number of scenes that, when examined more carefully, complicate our
notion of Fresh's role in all of this and undermine our desire to identify with him so
fully, or at least to view him solely as an aggrieved innocent.
For, to orchestrate his way out of the projects, Fresh devises a complicated network of
lies and quick changes that will align all of the various drug rings and dealers against
one another, essentially inducing such a total civil war that Fresh will either escape
unnoticed or, in the extreme circumstance, be the only person left standing. Yakin plunges
so deeply and energetically into the logistics of Fresh's plan, however, that little
consideration is given to what it means for a 12-year-old to have cooked all this up. Yes,
Fresh is exceedingly intelligent, but isn't there more going on for him to accomplish such
a feat? Doesn't he need to be able to think like a kingpin, to absorb and follow the
thought process of a criminal, to work out all the details? Keep in mind that much more is
demanded of Fresh than cooking up a strategy and following it to the letter; multiple
occasions materialize where Fresh must depend on reflex and quick thinking to save his own
neck—yet he still adheres flawlessly to what any of his drug-running bosses would think,
decide, or do.
So, we must ask, how much different, or more pointedly, how much better is Fresh, really,
than the men he seeks to escape? Is he truly an innocent or can we not afford to see him
that way anymore; has he been utterly run through by an insidious way of life, converted
entirely to a way of life and a state of mind that were unfairly inflicted but govern him
all the same? These are tough questions, as is the dilemma around Fresh's willingness to
cost other men their lives so he and his sister can run free. Yakin's rationale (or
Fresh's, depending on how you look at it) seems to be that, considering their likely
futures as providers and corrupters of youth after youth, hoods like Esteban need not be
considered or preserved as would a regular human being. Yet, at the same time, we are asked
to look past Fresh's own behaviors and conduct and view him solely as a fellow
human, a soul that can be saved. How is that fair?
The film is uninterested in pursuing its themes to the fullest, most conflicted extremes,
but then again, most of its young, unknown cast seems ill-prepared for such a probing
portrait of urban violence and psychic warfare. Nelson's apple cheeks and sad eyes
recommend him physically for the part, but he has trouble reading his dialogue as though it
were spontaneous speech. His emotions are frequently too stylized to be very believable,
removing Fresh even further from the point where we could more fully empathize with his
circumstances. Esposito is charismatic and clever as Esteban, and is lucky to be given a
fuller, more feasible role than what Samuel L. Jackson is handed in playing Fresh's
absentee dad. Compounding Jackson's difficulties is Yakin's obsession with the chess
metaphor, which, as in Oliver Parker's 1995 Othello, thuds down in several scenes as
an obvious metaphor for the machinations of the narrative. Finally, it seems churlish to
harangue against such young performers, but Luis Lantigua as Fresh's cocky, flamboyant
compadre is so shrill and overly mannered that we are almost thankful (rather than
appropriately saddened) when a circumstance befalls him that forces his disappearance.
Fresh wants to tell the story of a hero among villains, a born leader who must first
escape the demands of pharaonic oppressors. That story would be an interesting one to
follow, but whatever Yakin believes, he has not told that story here. Fresh deserves
credit for its convincing portrait of the inner-city tightrope, but as far as psychological
acuity, the area where Yakin seems to think his film works best, he actually stands in most
need of maturity and thought. In fairness, Yakin does deliver a galvanizing final shot
that implies he may well be more aware of the paradoxes built into his movie than anything
in the preceding two hours would suggest; if anything, though, such a hint only titillates
us further to wonder what more Yakin could have said about this sad, moorless boy. Given
such a unique and uniquely affecting premise, I was disappointed and surprised to see
Fresh play out as tritely and superficially as it ultimately does. I guess
that goes to show you can't judge a movie by its title. Original Grade:C
Update, 2024:
Just re-watched this NYC-set crack-wave drama for the first time in more than 25 years. Re-reading this old review, I'm embarrassed by some of my college-student thinking and phrasing—particularly my presumption that Yakin isn't consciously charting an ethically complex arc for Fresh, and my weird weighing in on which "human beings" are worthy of empathy. Fresh was a Roger Ebert cause célèbre, and he was hardly alone. Taken aback by the scale of praise in some quarters, I think I pushed back too hard and underrated the movie... though maybe not as much as I'd feared. It still feels fair to impugn experienced screenwriter but first-time director Boaz Yakin a little on his guiding of actors. Many of the adults feel beholden to generic tropes and lack the kinds of individual texture that would raise the intensity when our 12-year-old protagonist Fresh starts playing them all against each other. In the title role, award-winning newcomer Sean Nelson sure makes an effort and visibly improves as the film unfolds; I'm betting they shot in sequence as often as they could. Still, he's a little flat-footed and opaque for what this role demands, and he's indeed dragged down throughout one key subplot by Lantigua, mentioned above as the young actor playing his would-be partner in way-above-their-heads criminality. Samuel L. Jackson, holds down a key supporting role five minutes before Pulp Fiction changed his career. His early-90s charisma is still red hot, but he might have reconsidered his default cadences and rat-a-tat line deliveries and let us in a bit further to how his character is reading his semi-estranged son and chess pupil amid Fresh's overlapping crises and mostly veiled transformations. Like the performances, the aesthetics of Fresh get shaky at times, with some particular missteps in framing and music.
For all of that, I'm surprised I wasn't more moved back then by the intricacy of the screenwriting, as Fresh becomes the architect (and thus does Yakin) of a fearsomely engineered hail-mary strategy to rescue himself and his sister from a dead-end life, maybe even literally. Even better, and as tempting as it must have been to structure the whole script around Fresh's meticulous mission-planning, Yakin leaves room for some character beats of impressive impact: Aunt Frances's last scene, young Rosie's last scene, Roscoe the dog's last scene. He also reminds us often enough that Fresh isn't just a pre-teen mastermind in the making but also a barely-formed adolescent, intimidated by school, crushing on girls, wigged out by his living situation, and forced to negotiate a bewildering maze of powerful men. There's lots to admire in Fresh's execution and in its unmet potentials, even if another director and some tweaking in form and style would have helped. Revised Grade:B–
Awards:
Sundance Film Festival: Filmmakers Trophy (tie with Clerks); Special Jury Award (Nelson)
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Debut Performance (Nelson)
