"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Fresh

tn_freshFRESH (1994) is a real underseen gem of the 1990s, a low budget crime drama about a 12 year old drug courier (Sean Nelson). His aunt calls him Michael, everybody else calls him Fresh. It opens with him going to an apartment where a lady tries to talk up her daughter Marisol to him like she wants to hook them up because she thinks he’s such a smart kid. It seems like he could be there for innocent kid business like meeting a friend to walk to school or getting paid for his paper route, but you quickly realize he’s picking up a brick of heroin and she’s trying to rip him off. He’s smarter than she assumes and he doesn’t take any of her shit, and this is the key to the character throughout the whole movie.

Also did I mention he’s 12. It’s kind of like Doogie Howser.

mp_freshHe’s got normal kid problems. He’s shy talking to the girl he likes, he misses his older sister (BLADE’s hematologist friend N’Bushe Wright) when she’s gone, his friend Chucky is an idiot, he keeps getting to class late, there are too many kids living in his apartment, his dad is a drunk. But also he has to deliver these drugs, people are always trying to short him, crackheads offer to suck his dick and his boss Esteban (Giancarlo Esposito pre-channeling Peeples Hernandez from the SHAFT remake) is always pressuring him because he wants to hook up with his sister. Which is harder when it’s a smack dealer than just some kid at school or something.

Fresh isn’t supposed to see his dad (Samuel L. Jackson, when he was slimmer and had hair, remember that?) but he does – playing chess against him in the park. Dad sort of coaches him, giving him harsh advice, belittling his game, being more like a Pai Mei than a dad, except when he lectures him for using the n-word. But his Machiavellian chess philosophy pretty much tells Fresh what he needs to do to improve his situation. The kid starts enacting a master plan to play all the dealers against each other. He’s trusted with a huge delivery because nobody would expect a kid that small to have that much smack in his backpack. But then he’s able to use that smack for his scheme because nobody expects a kid to have the brains or the balls to fuck everybody over. Through a series of tricks and set ups and lies he knocks them down like the chess pieces on his board. He knows what to expect from them and what they expect from him. It’s brilliant and it’s cold-blooded. Even his school friends are pawns. There is a body count. It’s not pretty. It’s like THE 400 BLOWS x CLOCKERS + YOJIMBO with a touch of FIRST BLOOD ending. A good substitute for your crumb crushers when SPY KIDS or AGENT CODY BANKS is checked out at the video store.

And the beauty of it is that it never tells you what he’s up to. You just have to watch the plan come together. This little badass plays everybody. Remember when kids that played chess were nerds? This one isn’t. He’s more like Superfly, or The Young Nino Brown Adventures.

Watching it now it reminds me a little of CITY OF MEN, the TV show spin-off of CITY OF GOD. I saw some of the first season episodes and they’re this real matter of fact look at a kid’s life in the favelas, younger kids than in CITY OF GOD, and they’re working for the drug dealers, not really liking it but knowing that’s what they have to do to survive. They have to get in good with these dangerous men, not get busted by the cops, do a good job and stay out of people’s way, and also try to do okay in school. Well New York’s not as bad, but it’s a similar way of life for this kid. If Esteban wants you to do something you’re gonna have to do it, even if it’s gonna make you late for school again.

There are some good characters in the movie. Esteban is creepy and scary, but you can also see that he genuinely likes Fresh and that that makes Fresh feel good. And you can see how his dad means well too but just doesn’t have a clue how to be sensitive. He helps equip Fresh mentally for what he needs to do, but not emotionally. He also has a funny monologue about which famous chess players he’s met and how he could beat them.

But the most memorable supporting character is Fresh’s loud-mouthed friend Chucky (Luis Lantigua) who’s the opposite of Fresh. Fresh is very reserved but is the real deal, Chucky is a bragging dumbass and a total phony. He has none of the experience, intelligence or skills of a real criminal but he tries to imitate the way they look and talk and seems to convince himself that it makes him “real.” He keeps saying “I bust the stoopid moves!” and every time he says it seems more convinced that it means something. He also talks about the Punisher. (Writer-director Boaz Yakin wrote the Dolph version of THE PUNISHER.)

By the way, I noticed something. This movie has a real devastating subplot about Fresh’s dog who Chucky enters in a dog fight. In THE ROOKIE (co-written by Yakin) there were dog fights going on in a bar and the dogs attacked Charlie Sheen and he had to shoot one of them. In FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2 (also co-written by Yakin) I remember there was a dog that was being trained for fights. I don’t remember any dog fights being in THE PUNISHER, but I’d be very surprised if there weren’t some in UPTOWN GIRLS, because I don’t know how else Britney Murphy and Dakota Fanning’s characters would meet other than training innocent animals to viciously maul each other to the death for the entertainment and gambling pleasure of their owners.

My point is that Boaz Yakin is a tireless advocate for this up and coming sport. Now that it’s getting alot more mainstream exposure with Michael Vick and everything maybe he’ll get a shot to remake REMEMBER THE TITANS with his original vision of it being about pitbulls.

From what I’ve seen, Yakin has never made another movie that’s similar to FRESH at all in content or quality. He did a couple indie dramas like A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES with Renee Zelweger, and most recently he co-wrote THE PRINCE OF PERSIA. But I’ll keep looking out for him because this one is too good to be an accident. I’ll try not to underestimate him, but hopefully he’ll do more than just keep busting the stoopid moves.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 12:30 am and is filed under Crime, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

20 Responses to “Fresh”

  1. this movie wasnt ringing any bells till you mentioned Samuel L. Jackson as a chess playing dad, then I realized I have seen some of it

    now I’m curious to see the whole thing

    by the way I saw the Prince of Persia movie, it wasn’t very good, but was still way better than the Uwe Boll movies, that’s about all I can say about it

  2. Drug dealers and Chess Analogies? That’s just like…THE WIRE!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whwawZ1YoOc

  3. ^Also, there was a humorous misunderstanding in a subplot because of a Dog Fight in THE WIRE too. I enjoyed Prince of Persia a lot, btw. Being a fan of the games and liking the elements they pulled from that probably has a lot to do with it, but I think objectively too it’s probably the best cinematic adaptation of a video game.

  4. I love this movie, and am always recommending that people watch it. Has a few parts in it that are kind of a punch to the gut when you see it unedited, but once Fresh’ plan starts to unfold, it’s so satisfying, like that candy bar he eats while sitting on the hood of the car watching the violence play out. It’s a little hard to keep up with all the twists and turns of what, exactly, Fresh is doing to set up and knock down all the players, but it’s not so confusing that you get lost. I like all the other bit players in this, like Guillermo Diaz in his first role as a stressed out thug, or the cop who is trying to get Fresh to turn informant, and the drug boss who always reminds me of Dave Chappelle’s scary uncle. I also like the score, which has a very “Peter and the Wolf” quality with the little woodwind instrument representing Fresh.

    And the comparisons to The (redacted) are very apt, as Sean Nelson went on to play a somewhat similar role as DeAndre McCullough, real-life resident of the inner city neighborhood documented in the The Corner, which is the HBO miniseries (based on David Simon’s non-fiction book of the same name) that was the precursor to The (redacted). And the real-life DeAndre McCullough played Brother Mouzzone’s sullen, homophobic sidekick LaMar in The (redacted). But I digress.

  5. I had the soundtrack to this movie on tape back in the day. The funny thing was, it consisted entirely of early hip-hop hits, none of which were actually in the movie. You could get away with shit like that in the nineties.

  6. I think somewhere I read that Yakin deliberately wanted a non hip hop sounding score so it would stand out from other “urban” movies of the time like JUICE and what not. So he got the drummer from The Police. I guess it’s the opposite of if he got NWA to do it. Anyway it sounds like a terrible idea on paper, but it works great in the movie.

  7. Mr. M. Yeah that shit started in the 80’s with Tim Burton’s Batman. Prince made the ‘Soundtrack’ and Elfman made the ‘Score’. So if it’s from the US of A you need to buy the ‘Score’ if you want to hear character themes and set piece music. If you want the couple of awkwardly place pop hits and a bunch of music ‘inspired’ by the film then get the ‘Soundtrack’. I agree it’s kind of annoying and backward, especially if you’re 14 and buy the wrong one with your hard earned monies!

    And I don’t remember the name of the drummer for the Police but he is arguably the most ‘world’ versed of the three members. Being a percussionist he was raised partially in the middle east so he has a whole different idea/take on what makes music ‘move’. Honestly, while not a huge fan of the Police, I think that his drumming is part of what made them unique and popular back in the day. And kinda a pain in the ass to play on the drums.

  8. Vern – Not totally shocking on paper, considering Copeland composed that kickass theme song for THE EQUALIZER.

  9. Jareth Cutestory

    June 14th, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    If I remember correctly, Copeland also scored RUMBLE FISH, WALL STREET and … uh, SHE’S HAVING A BABY.

    Oh, and DEAD LIKE ME too.

  10. Jareth Cutestory – You gotta eat.

  11. Guys, give up on “The Wire.” Vern has already seen them but he’s still putting out reviews he did from 1998. In like three years, you’ll get “The Wire” reviews.

  12. Lawrence – They’ll give it up when the POC jokes stop.

    Which is never.

    FRESH: PORT OF CALL: NEW ORLEANS.

  13. Lawrence- I’m not usually one of the Wire recommenders. I was just spoofing the tendency for people to bring it up, and here it was a rather apt. I’d rather Vern review SUPERNATURAL.

  14. I would rather Vern review Cowboy Bebop

  15. What I love about Vern is that you never know what you’re going to get next.

  16. I’ve seen this one twice. The resolution of the subplot with the dog is devastating, as is the final scene of the movie. Makes me think of Hemingway’s line in THE SUN ALSO RISES, paraphrased:

    It’s easy to be hard-boiled all of the time… during the day. But not at night. At some point, you have to let your guard down, and the longer you’ve kept it up, the higher the price you’ll have to pay.

  17. Lawrence-Did you just compare Vern to a Box of Chocolates?

  18. another good sam jackson movie that isn’t well known is 187, or as I call it, black punisher.

  19. When Fresh Has To Walk Away From Chuckie Because Of Chuckie’s Greed & Stupidity……..Mtaphor For Life………When The Masterplan Was Pulled Off & The Tears Were Shed,He Was A Kid After All.Great Film.

  20. Thank you so much for reviewing this, Vern. I’d never heard of it before, but I went and got it based on your review and really enjoyed it. It’s smart all the way through, every scene on point but still delivering little enjoyments (like Michael eating the candy bar, or his father’s pride in his skills on the clock). And it all adds up to something triumphant and devastating at the same time. Killer ending–I love it when a movie cuts to black at exactly the moment it feels like it should.

    Anyway, thanks again for spreading the joy of this excellent film. I shall do my best to pass it on.

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