Friday, July 16, 2010

A Full Review Of The Movie Fresh

By Sarah Hobbs

Writer director Boaz Yakin has had an interesting career in Hollywood. He's always been, primarily, a write for hire. He has had very few personal projects, mainly sticking to studio work like Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Most of his work is... Let's be honest, mediocre and forgettable. It's not his fault, it's just that these are the dull projects they give him to work with. So what is one of his movies doing on a review labeled "must see movie downloads"?

This movie came after Boaz Yakin's self imposed exile. At a certain point, he became disillusioned with the film industry and declared that he would be taking a hiatus from writing, at least until he felt he had something important to say. The result was a movie that truly does make a powerful statement.

The film follows a young boy working as a drug mule for various mid-level dealers around the city. He makes anywhere from twenty to fifty bucks a run, and he's been storing that money in a coffee can by the railroad tracks. The money really adds up when you save it, and Fresh is saving it. For what? We won't say. Save to say that the way the movie plays out is really something.

Fresh spends one afternoon a week learning to play chess from his father, who is estranged from the rest of the family. These scenes are something like the Greek chorus scenes of the film, with Fresh reflecting on what's been happening and contemplating his next move.

When two of Fresh's friends are murdered by one of the street dealers he works with, and at the same time, his mother informs him that she's going to have to give a couple of them up for adoption, Fresh puts a brilliant scheme into motion.

Fresh's scheme to take the badguys down is really incredible, serving as a fascinating parallel to the chess games he plays with his father. The master stroke of his plan is that none of his opponents suspect him of a thing, as he is, after all, just a kid. He essentially manages to play dumb and innocent, while in fact outsmarting everyone around him.

The tightrope he walks to work the scheme is suspenseful, dangerous, frightening, knowing that at any moment, they could catch on to him and put him under the ground.

The movie is really unlike any other. We've seen movies where the hero schemes their way out of trouble, rather than fighting or using guns, but rarely do we see a movie where that hero is a ten year old boy, rarely do we see a film with a child hero in a violent situation without being a fantasy family film like Home Alone. Fresh is real, raw, frightening, and fascinating. - 39815

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