Review of Fresh (1994) by Melvin W — 20 Sep 2013

Corky: Only reason you ain't the man is you still too goddamn little, but, when you get bigger, you gonna be the man.

"Risking it all, he invents new rules... to beat the odds in a deadly game of survival.".

Fresh is a solid, ghetto drama about a young 12 year old boy who runs drugs to support himself, but loses out on any sort of a real childhood in the process. The movie isn't perfect, with moments of shaky writing and shakier acting by some, but for the most part it's well acted and well written. It's nothing necessarily new, with a ghetto crime backdrop, but the character of Fresh is a fresh and well rounded enough character to make us feel like we're watching this type of movie for the first time. .

Fresh has a lot of problems, especially considering he is only eight years old. His mothers gone and we can only assume dead. His father is an alcoholic, who he only sees in the park to play chess. His sister has left his aunts house and is a dope fiend who shacks up with whatever dealer she can. He runs drugs for local dealers to make money so that one day he can escape the ghetto, but the question is will he be able to escape the violence of the job he does in time?

Sean Nelson really is brilliant as Fresh. He exudes a maturity and adulthood presence into a character that is years beyond his age. The rest of the cast is nothing too special, but they aren't too bad, for the most part, either. Samuel L. Jackson is easily the biggest name in this and he has a small, but nonetheless important role as Fresh's absent and alcoholic father.

Fresh could just be considered another urban drama about the life of the street, but it does manage to be better than that. It's a movie that's well worth a look and may possibly be one of the better movies of this type out there. If you're a fan of the genre, it's definitely a can't miss film.