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Summary: Read This Review!
Review: I find this is the best 'growing up in the hood' movie I've seen - Boyz 'n' da Hood is too cheesy, while Menace II Siciety is just pure violence. Fresh is a realistic portrayal of how gangs work in New York - the Heroin dealing Puerto Rican gang, headed by Esteban, and the Crack dealing African-American gang, led by Corky. The plot is amazing, the way young Michael sets the two gangs up against each other is ingenius. Michael's is a far from innocent character himself (unlike Tre in Boyz 'n' da Hood), and this simply adds to the drama.
Personally, I was glad the film didn't have a routine Hip-Hop soundtrack - the scene with Chucky talking about 'The Punsiher' is perfect for the Wild West backround music.
Finally, the performance of Sean Nelson as Michael, or Fresh, is simply the best acting performance by a boy I have ever scene.
Rating: 
Summary: ......
Review: I loved the moive "Boyz N' Hood", but I had lots of great things to say about that movie. "Fresh" on the other hand was also an anti-hood flick, but when it was over I was totally speechless.
The movies is certainly not for the easily botherd.
We get a real good look at a broken home of pot heads in the opeaning sceens. By the end the film we see the sad effect it, and so many more things have on a young boy. Samel L. Jackson, and Giancarlo Esposite are very, very good. This is one of my favorites.
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Summary: my favorite movie
Review: I rented this movie on a whim a few years ago and was so moved that I watched it twice more that same night. The movie is very complex and demands repeat viewings to catch all the sublties (sp?) and to understand the dialog. The score is absolutely brilliant; unfortunately all you can find musically is a tribute album, not the actual soundtrack. Buy it, rent it....just leave yourself time for more than one viewing.
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Summary: Nature versus nurture--
Review: In an increasingly conservative world, it helps to look back and see just what those "good old days" we're encouraged to embrace once more were made up of. Boaz Yakin's "Fresh" shows us just how far we've come and how far we have to go--and I don't merely refer to us colored folk in making that assertion. Sean Nelson's character could just as easily been lifted from an Ellison novel, Grandmaster Flash's "The Message," John A. Williams' "The Man Who Cried I Am" or Andrew Hacker's "Two Nations." Fresh is the child who grows up to be a Stevie Wonder, an Ice Cube, or the [person] who steals your car, robs you after that theater engagement, and laughs as he slits your throat. "Fresh" (the movie) doesn't preach, Yakin doesn't take sides--what he does do is show how hard it is under certain circumstances for a hopeful child to grow up without becoming a cynical man. We should alternate televised MLK and Malcom X speeches with "Fresh" on heavy rotation--not during Black History Month, mind you, but every year on the 4th of July. Independence Day, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: It was one of those movies that cames on late on a night that I couldn't sleep. After 3 minutes, I was hooked and could not even make an attempt at sleeping.
This movie is worthy of any award.
It is incredible!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: It was one of those movies that cames on late on a night that I couldn't sleep. After 3 minutes, I was hooked and could not even make an attempt at sleeping.
This movie is worthy of any award.
It is incredible!
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Summary: SUPERLATIVE URBAN CRIME DRAMA
Review: It's a hood movie. With Sam Jackson, who even in 1994 (before his current popularity) had ravishing screen presence. My expectations were high. And I was anything but disappointed, the action-packed thriller stands heads above many films in its genre -- urban crime drama, or hood flicks, or what have you. At the very least, it doesn't suffer from the usual cliches of such films. Rap and R&B type music is incidental to the plot, giving way to a poignant soundtrack by Stewart Copeland. For once, gang life, alcoholism, and drug addiction are not glamourized as the "what else" recourse for the poor African American kids. Instead such ills are condemned. The pivotal character as an intellectual prodigy is neither a joke nor a gimmick, his mind is the means of his survival and eventually his triumph over the forces around him. The cast is excellent, the standouts being an extraordinary debut by Sean Nelson as "Fresh" (title role) and the reliable Samuel J as his alcoholic speed-chess-master father. The final scene is one of the most devastating and memorable scenes in the last decade of films. The sincerity and unpredictability of 'Fresh' are reasons alone you should grab a copy of this DVD if you can!
Rating:
Summary: Ambivalent and ambiguous
Review: Like other reviewers, I was impressed by this movie -- but perhaps for different reasons. There are so many things that are well done in this film that it's hard to list them all, but a lot of them center on the film's complexity: the director's avoidance of stereotypes or simplistic characterizations. As a result, it's hard not to feel ambivalent about most of the characters. Even the saintly Aunt Frances sacrifices someone else when she feels she must. And, likewise, the meaning of much of the action is left unclear. Other reviewers have made some assumptions about Fresh's intentions and motivations that I find myself disagreeing with: instead, I think the director has left them ambiguous. Clearly, Fresh sets up Chuckie -- but how far did he intend for it to go? Chuckie was meant to spill the beans, but was he also intended to stop the bullet? And why, exactly, does Fresh finally cry in the final scene? I can think of several reasons, each rather different.
In the end, it's this that makes the movie so enjoyable to me. The director doesn't tell, he shows -- just as in real life, where people don't tell you exactly what they're thinking, but show you bits and pieces, and leave you to put it together for yourself. The movie's realism derives in large part from this. You find yourself watching it, trying to figure out what's going on in the mind of a kid with a fantastic poker face, but you never know for sure.
As for the soundtrack, well...it's so different from what you might expect to hear coming out of a radio in that or any other neighborhood, that it seems somehow like the music of Fresh's thoughts.
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Summary: SO FAR BEYOND EXCEPTIONAL...................................
Review: Michael known in the streets as "Fresh" is a 12-year-old drug runner in the violent world of the projects. His life is filled with so much danger. Some of the hardest moments were watching as Fresh helplessly tries to stop the bleeding of a girl he has a crush on. Then only a day or so later as he tries to rescue his friend he tried to help by pulling him into his world.
Fresh is a very sarcastic, but thoughtful kid that's had to grow up fast. Samuel L. Jackson plays his father. He's a speed chess hustler in the city park whose unbiased philosophy is basically the way that he teaches Fresh lessons in the streets.
Fresh plots a brilliant, coldly brutal plan to save himself and his junkie sister from this mob of drug dealers and the impending street violence. It's a very flowing style that captures you as Fresh; this cool street survivor does everything that he has to do just to make it another day.
I'd never heard of this film. I think that it is one of the best films out.
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Summary: "Anything lost can be found again, except for time wasted."
Review: Michael, a.k.a. "Fresh", is a 12-year-old drug dealer who lives in a run-down house with his aunt and other orphaned children in a dangerous Brooklyn neighborhood. Having grown up in a harsh culture, he is a boy who shows little emotion despite witnessing the revulsion of street life on a regular basis. His mother is long gone, his sister has resorted to prostitution, and his father is completely estranged-although every now and then he meets with his father to play speed chess, through which he is taught street knowledge. At first Fresh aspires to live the life of a powerful drug dealer, but one day a heartrending incident causes him to rethink his dreams and consider a better possible future. Directed by Boaz Yakin (who also directed "Remember the Titans"--a *completely* different film), "Fresh" is an astonishingly well-done film that left me stunned long after it ended. By depicting a brutal life through the eyes of a young boy, the film tells a bleak story by taking its viewers on a roller-coaster ride of gut-wrenching scenes, and yet in the process it still manages to engage the audience and finally arrive at a surprising conclusion. Although the first third of the film is basically used to give the viewer a tour of Fresh's neighborhood, the plot soon becomes very complex after one particular scene. Fresh's life literally becomes a game of chess, represented by the moves the pieces make and the strategy used to stay alive. Despite the film's quiet atmosphere, it moves at a rapid pace and forces the audience to listen closely in order to keep on track with the plot. The plot moves unpredictably throughout, but every one of its elements makes perfect sense after a bit of thinking. And although the script is heavy on profanity, it is totally realistic in depicting the everyday life of the characters, and the dialogue between Fresh and his father during their chess matches is especially good. The picture is shot on low-budget film, making the Brooklyn neighborhood feel all the more dark and unwelcoming. But there are no prolonged fight scenes, nor is there a lot of on-screen brutality. There are, however, a lot of tragic scenes that really hit home, and they are shot with rapid film editing and camera work that didn't require any computer enhancements. Simply put, no unnecessary visual techniques are used. The acting is superb all around. Sean Nelson, in his debut role, is stunning as Fresh; he is so compelling in the way he conveys his emotions without having to say anything, and he feels so natural that it seems as if he doesn't even know the camera's on him for more than 90% of the film. For this to come out of a debut performance is impressive enough; but for it to come out of such a young actor is truly astonishing. Supporting roles include Samuel L. Jackson, who expresses a great sense of authority as Fresh's father, and Giancarlo Esposito, who is absolutely chilling as the "black king" of the film. And the ending is unforgettable. In fact, it is not the unpredictable denouement that the viewer remembers best; it is the very last image. In one final shot, all the emotion that had built up to that point bursts out in a brief, silent moment. It is a deeply moving way to end the film, and it gave me a faint sense of hope despite all the sorrow and horror that had already happened. "Fresh" is a tiny film that manages to be riveting, frightening, disturbing, contemplative, poignant, and faintly uplifting all at once, and that alone makes it one of the most memorable films I have ever seen. But with acting, filming, and screenplay all being top-notch without any other frills, "Fresh" is also a brilliant work that uses only the most basic aspects of film to their fullest extent. It features many upsetting scenes and is definitely not for all viewers, and due to the plot and script it can be a very challenging film to watch at times, but it is an unconventional example of a director and cast at the top of their form. I easily recommend "Fresh" to film lovers everywhere.
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