I watched 'Fresh' again recently, with several other examples of
its genre (urban crime drama, or words to that effect). It
stands out head and shoulders above the rest as an engaging and
intelligent film. Part of 'Fresh's strength is that it belies
many of the genre's expected conventions. Rap music is vaguely
incidental, giving way to a poignant soundtrack by Stewart
Copeland. For once, gang life, alcoholism, and drug addiction
are never glamourized as they are simultaneously condemned...
the fault of so many films which purport to be morally aware of
the destructive nature of these things (but seem to say,
backhandedly, "isn't T-Bone a badd mutha, though?") And as
another reviewer noted, the central 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 the Fresh and the reliable
Samuel L. Jackson 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 unparalleled in films of its
type.
