Fresh

United States, France

1994

114 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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PROD Lawrence Bender, Randy Ostrow

CAST Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, N'Bushe Wright, Ron Brice, Jean-Claude La Marre, José Zúñiga, Luis Lantigua, Yul Vazquez, Cheryl Freeman, Anthony Thomas, Charles Malik Whitfield, Víctor González, Guillermo Díaz, Davenia McFadden, Lawrence Bender, F. Murray Abraham

SOUND Tommy Louie

Sundance (Dramatic Competition): Filmmakers Trophy, Special Jury Recognition, Stockholm (American Independents), Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs)

Synopsis

Over the last three years, a number of films have depicted the ghetto, along with the gang world, drugs, and the pain and despair of poverty. But rarely have we seen anything approaching the authenticity and poignant reality captured by Boa’ Yakin in his portrait of Fresh, Fresh is a prodigy, in the street sense of the term, Wise beyond his years, he’s growing up in almost unbearable circumstances: with an aunt and his younger cousins in a crowded apartment. He supports himself and saves for his escape by working for a drug dealer, but is unusual because he’s not at all taken in by the allure of ghetto glamour. Rather he’s quiet and deliberate and terribly reluctant to miss school or take unnecessary risks. In fact Fresh is such a true original that to reduce him to character categories does him a disservice, His sister Nicole is unfortunately setting off down the desperate path that we’ve often seen in films of this genre, but Fresh, resolute in his desire to free both of them, pursues a strategy that seems Incredible for a boy his age, he sees his father, although he has been forbidden to do so, and they play speed chess in Washington Square. Though it is far from a “normal” father-son relationship, it helps Fresh acquire the ability to adapt. Yakln has written a number of previous scripts, and this feature debut thrives with writerly nuances, as well as carefully crafted dialogue, a superb narrative and strikingly effective and real characters. That it’s as entertaining a film as It was a script testifies to his skill as a director.: he elicits strong performances, particularly from lead actor Sean Nelson and Samuel Jackson, who plays the father. There is both distinctive realism and an originality in fresh that well up from a world which we’ve seen before, but is seldom captured with this intelligence and emotion. –Sundance Film Festival

Director

Boaz Yakin

Boaz Yakin (born June 20, 1966 is an American screenwriter and film director based in New York City. Yakin studied filmmaking at City College of New York and New York University. He’s the writer of such screenplays as Fresh and A Price Above Rubies, and he is the director of the film Remember the Titans.

Yakin was born in New York City to an Israeli couple who met in Paris while studying mime with Marcel Marceau. He attended a yeshiva, and later, the Bronx High School of Science, where he was classmates in 1983 with actor Jon Cryer.

Yakin studied filmmaking at New York’s City College. He moved on to New York University, and made his first deal for a screenplay at the age of 19.

After finishing school, Yakin worked in the film business helping to develop projects for several companies, and saw his first screenplay reach the screen in 1989, when The Punisher, a vehicle for Dolph Lundgren, was released. Yakin’s next screenplay was The Rookie, starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen. Wanting to take on more personal material, Yakin drew from his experiences growing up in New York’s inner city for his next screenplay, Fresh. Yakin opted to direct his screenplay for Fresh himself, and the film won critical acclaim, earning the Filmmaker’s Trophy at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

Yakin went back to his youth for inspiration on his next project; while his parents were non-practicing Jews, they enrolled their son in an Orthodox private school when he was five, and his experience with the Chassidic community informed his screenplay for A Price Above Rubies. Yakin rebounded with his next assignment, which was his first film that he directed but did not write; Remember the Titans was a major box-office success, and moved him to the upper tier of bankable Hollywood talents.

His Holocaust drama Death in Love debuted in January 2008. Yakin describes it as a movie about the failure of the family and inability to change your past.

He was a member of the US Dramatic Jury at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2010, he will direct Sympathy for the Devil, with Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Duhamel in the cast.

Yakin is married to Israeli music video director Alma Har’el. —Wikipedia

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bennievermeer

30May12

'Fresh' (1994) is one of those films that is best seen at least twice. The first time to be taken by surprise, and the second time to fully appreciate the subtlety of this powerful and genre-defying film, the basis of which is a script of rare intelligence. Read my full review: http://www.brnrd.net/blog/archive/2007/12/16/fresh

deftworker

1May12

The only true moment in this film (and what a moment it is) is the final scene. Otherwise, there is an overwrought and contrived feel to the many twists and turns of the plot. In dealing with the the young protagonist the film was too calculated and also too focused on the revenge narrative, rather the social/cultural side. A misguided effort that had the potential to be more from the power of that ending scene.

Roger Da Silva João

23Aug11

yeah, you're right. it's crazy that so few people watched it. I'm sure it's one of the best and most intelligent movies from the 90's.