It’s probably impossible to make a list of all the “ghetto” movies that have been released since Boyz N The Hood broke new ground in 1991. It was made on a relatively small 6 million budget, had no huge stars and was helmed by a young director who had no experience. It overcame all of this to become a moderately large hit; it also happened to be a very good movie about life in the ‘hood that didn’t go overboard and remained believeable all the way. The same cannot be said for its many imitators, many of which failed to capture the original’s realism. Fresh is not one of those movies; it presents an original take on the whole urban drama genre. It’s a rose in a cesspool filled with stuff like Belly and Caught Up.

Michael (aka Fresh, played by Sean Nelson) is a 12-year-old black kid who lives with his aunt and many cousins in a small apartment in New York. Fresh bides his time between school, hanging with his friends, visit his chess-playing alcoholic of a father (Samuel L. Jackson) and delivering large amounts of heroin for a local hood named Esteban (Giancarlo Esposito). His eyes are opened one afternoon when a basketball game goes awry and a two-bit drug dealer guns down two people, including a schoolyard crush of Fresh’s. After he finds his sister stoned out of her mind with Esteban, Fresh cooks up a plan that will help him get out of the life while simultaneously getting rid of most of the drug dealers in the neighbourhood.

It could almost be subtitled The 50 Cent Story. The story does share a lot with the life of the famous rapper… however I doubt that Fresh turned out like 50 Cent. This is the thing that makes Fresh so original; Fresh doesn’t glorify his lifestyle. We never really know why he runs the drugs, since he just hides the money, and no one seems to be forcing him to do it. You sense that he doesn’t like what he’s doing. There were these kinds of voices of reasons in the other movies (Cuba Gooding Jr. in Boyz N The Hood) but they weren’t so… ambiguous. The aura of mystery that surrounds Fresh’s great stone face makes his character more interesting than many characters of his ilk.

It’s always a gamble to cast someone with no experience in a lead role. It’s usually pulled off better by foreign directors, who often pick actors who come from places where movies are of very little importance and feel no need to do any posturing. When the American do it, there’s are much bigger chances that the actor will not be all that he’s cracked up to be. Sean Nelson had no acting experience when he did Fresh, but you wouldn’t know it. Nelson doesn’t show much emotion; he’s practically underacting… but it’s a necessity. Nelson speaks more through his eyes than through his mouth, resulting in one of the finest child performances I’ve ever seen. This transcends the simple “For a kid, he’s pretty good”. This goes straight into “Knock me down and call me Sally” territory. The other kids don’t necessarily fare so well; they’re less natural in front of the camera, resulting in some posturing and shoddy performances. Luis Lantigua, who plays Chuckie, Fresh’s loudmouthed pal, is the best of the bunch for the sole reason that the role calls for him to be posturing and annoying. Samuel L. Jackson makes the best of his handful of scenes as the boy’s father; I don’t think I need to tell you that he’s terrific, I think it’s already a given. Also terrific is the almost-as-reliable Giancarlo Esposito, who gives an energetic performance as Esteban.

Another thing the film has going for it is the way the violence is handled. Violence is a staple of these kinds of movies; it’s often very graphic. Here, there are many graphic situations but very few of it is actually shown on-screen. Instead of focusing, say, on the exit wound, the film will show a character’s face during an act of violence. For a film helmed by a former music video director, Fresh is remarkably restrained in its form and structure. There are no wild angles, no overly stylized photography and such. There’s some basic overlapping image stuff, but that’s not exclusively music video-y.
However, for all of its originality, Fresh still loses in some aspects. For starters, the film cannot shake every cliché. Hence, most drug-dealer characters will talk loud and fast and be terribly obnoxious, carry a gun in their belt and get really mad for no reason. There’s also a heavy-handed metaphor running through the film: life is like a game of chess. It’s not so much that it’s a bad metaphor; it’s just shoved in our face continually.

Fresh breaks no new ground as far as the genre is concerned but it’s still one of the better films to come out of the 90’s crop of ghetto dramas. It’s a great showcase for young Nelson (who went on to star in films such as American Buffalo, with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz and The Wood, with Omar Epps and Taye Diggs) and a thought-provoking film to boot.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age