Friday, July 16, 2010

The Film Fresh Is Directed By Boaz Yakin

By Sarah Hobbs

Boaz Yakin is typically seen as a work-for-hire writer and director. It's not his fault, he's just a good writer with bills to pay, so he takes a lot of sub-par studio projects that don't really offer him anything interesting to do in the script. So it's weird that a movie like Fresh comes from someone with a track record for mediocrity, but Fresh really is one of the all time must see movie downloads.

This movie came after Boaz Yakin's self imposed exile. At a certain point, he became disillusioned with the film industry and declared that he would be taking a hiatus from writing, at least until he felt he had something important to say. The result was a movie that truly does make a powerful statement.

The film follows a young boy working as a drug mule for various mid-level dealers around the city. He makes anywhere from twenty to fifty bucks a run, and he's been storing that money in a coffee can by the railroad tracks. The money really adds up when you save it, and Fresh is saving it. For what? We won't say. Save to say that the way the movie plays out is really something.

Fresh spends one afternoon a week learning to play chess from his father, who is estranged from the rest of the family. These scenes are something like the Greek chorus scenes of the film, with Fresh reflecting on what's been happening and contemplating his next move.

The movie is sort of like Fistful of Dollars as a hood story. Two of Fresh's friends are killed by one of the dealers he works for, and he takes it upon himself to exact an incredible revenge plan that gives you one surprise after another. Fresh is a young man of incredible intelligence, and his scheme is one of the all time greatest plots in film history.

The plan is complex, but easy to understand after you see the whole thing play out. Fresh's ingenuity is incredible, the way he plays one side against the other, all the while avoiding suspicion simply by virtue of being a child. They never suspect that they've been outwitted by a ten year old. So the question is how long he can keep the facade going, how long it takes to make everything work and free himself of these scumbag's control over his life once and for all.

The tightrope he walks to work the scheme is suspenseful, dangerous, frightening, knowing that at any moment, they could catch on to him and put him under the ground.

It's a rare film that works this well with such touchy subject material. The film takes a child of ten years old and puts him into a Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo style plot, scheming and plotting his way to victory over deadly, menacing criminals. It's incredible how delicate an operation this is, to make the movie exciting and suspenseful without selling short the reality and truth of the subject matter of real life street violence.

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