FRESH
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
*** (out of four)
This movie ain't stale for a second, it's completely... oh, what's the word... fresh. That also happens to be the nickname of the main character, a 12-year-old drug dealer who is the most intelligent and resourceful juvenile delinquent I've ever seen. He manages to keep his occupation a secret from his family, which consists of at least ten brothers and sisters, the aunt who looks after them all, the drunk father who uses chess as a metaphor for life and the older sister who is hooked on the very item Fresh sells and is also hooked up with Fresh's boss, Esteban.
Tragedy strikes early on in the film, as a school girl Fresh has a crush on is caught in the line of fire (wasn't that a Clint Eastwood movie?) from a fellow drug runner's gun. Everyone else flees the scene, but Fresh stays until the police arrive, insisting of course that he saw nothing. The same thing happens later on in the film as Fresh's loudmouth friend-turned-drug runner is mowed down. The police realize it may not be a coincidence that this kid was found at the scene of two murders in two days. You or I may never make that connection, but then we never took months of courses in advanced detective techniques taught at the police academy (and watching those movies doesn't count either).
FRESH isn't a fast-moving action film or a murder mystery. It's more of a case study into the life of an incredible young man who rises above the scum he associates with and the work he does. He also has the enviable ability to convincingly lie through his teeth to get what he wants. Enviable to me, of course, because lying has never been something I could even begin to try without bursting into maniacal laughter, even the most minor lies. That's why I was never called upon as a character witness for the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. I could never say "Even a fool knows pubic hair is part of the delicious Classic Coke formula" with a straight face. But this kid could. He lies to the cops twice, convincing them he's just a stupid kid. And those scenes don't even compare to the movie's end, in which Fresh commits several convincing doublecrosses on his boss and associates.
As far as inner-city drug dramas go, this one ranks with the best of them, taking the high road to make its characters human, giving them a reason to commit the human atrocities they do (unlike, say, Clarence Thomas). It's also not as violent as the usual crop of drug dramas. The seemingly gratuitous violence toward the end is essential to the story. And FRESH contains some stunning performances from people you've never heard of, the only recognizable actor being Samuel L. Jackson (PULP FICTION), in the part of Fresh's chess-playing father, the man who gets medieval with the bishops, queens and pawns.
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