FRESH - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

I love films that push the envelope in exploring ideas and topics that most will shy away from. Take the IFC film Swallow, Denis Villenueva’s under appreciated Prisoners or the DiCaprio mind bending Shudder Island. These films explore the mental side of suspense and terror, with less physical danger and more mental uncomfortableness. They do to you mind what running your nails across a chalkboard does to your ears. In the vein of psychological thrillers, the latest film from Fox Searchlight is currently available to stream on Hulu, it is FRESH. This film effectively pulls the viewer in, sucking us into it’s wicked, wild ride of twists and turns, each reveal pushing us further into discomfort with it’s constitution challenging sequences. Without dropping spoilers or even the general premise of the film, this one is not for the faint of heart. But even if you’re not in the mood for the main course that FRESH is serving up, there’s lots of little morsels through the film to whet your appetite and keep you hungry to see where it all goes.

SYNOPSIS - This tale of love, heartbreak and some gourmet cooking begins with our main protagonist Noa, (Daisy Edgar-Jones), checking her phone before a date. Edgar-Jones could probably get a decent amount of work as Anne Hathaway’s stunt double, but in this film, those looks are combined with the personality of Kristen Stewart from the Twilight films. For the purposes of FRESH, she’s a bright young face with a nice but lazy girl demeanor, she’s pretty chill, wearing oversized sweaters on first dates. Edgar-Jones gives a good performance, her melancholic facial expressions help carry the film into the moody, somber realm it needs to go. When she smiles you can still tell there’s sadness inside, like the smile had to push it’s way past some hurt to get to the surface. As we check in on her love life, we discern she’s having a bit of a rough go of it. We watch as she swipes through a dating app, scrolling through pictures of men, before closing it and exhaling with audible frustration. Noa then texts her best friend Mollie (Jojo Gibbs), and they ridicule a guy she’s about to go on a date with that’s told her “FYI, this place is cash only”. The date crashes and burns as we expect, just imagine some scarf wearing tool who gives a monologue about hot sauce giving him acid reflux and you get the idea.

Noa returns home disgusted, she opens her fridge and the camera gives us a view from the inside of the mostly empty shelves staring back out at her. Who the hell leaves their milk cartons with the labels facing the inside of the fridge? Milk label complaints aside, she sets off in search of new and exciting food products from her local grocer. I loved the slightly dark and moody music as she wanders the nearly empty isles, with the standard fluorescent lighting glaring down on our subject creating an otherworldly environment out of a normal food run. A disinterested cashier smiling fakely, a creepy old man dipping his pinky into a jar of milk to taste it, it all sets a dreary and unsettling tone for the film that is to come. But as she rounds the corner to the produce section, a cotton candy grape wielding Steve (Sebastian Stan) catches her unawares and almost immediately begins working his charm, despite the low point of the script’s dialogue failing him. After talking about grapes and how he lives over on isle six, he reflectively says, “That was terrible”. She responds, “That was kinda terrible.” Despite that, Noa is still intrigued by the screenwriter’s lackluster dialogue and predictably hands over her phone number, unfortunately before she’s able to make it to the meat section. Some days later, the pair embark on their first date and we begin to see Stan and Edgar-Jones have a nice chemistry. While not anywhere close to the great big screen romantic pairings, these two do work well together. Edgar-Jones’s doe eyed gazes from across the bar at Stan laughing at something silly makes us wonder what kind of twists are in store for these star crossed lovers. We subsequently watch them head to bed for some coitus, but within a couple days Steve invites her to take off with him on a weekend getaway, much to the dismay of Mollie when Noa tells her via text.

Once Noa and Steve arrive at their weekend escape, over a half hour into the film, the title and opening credits roll. I don’t know where or why this trend started, Drive My Car from last year pulled the same move forty-five minutes in, but I love it. We move quickly into the second act and the main plot lines start to unfold before our eager eyes. The twists and reveals keeps the pace of the film moving and like a good tomato bisque, the pot of our expectations and investment in where it’s all headed stays simmering. As was mentioned, Edgar-Jones fits her role well, and Stan, while not a top notch actor in my opinion, does a decent job playing a . . . let’s just call him a professional chef. He looks like he’s having a blast though as he dances around the kitchen in one particular sequence getting food prepared while the classic new wave 80’s song Obsession by Animotion plays. Many of the film’s technical elements are perfectly fine, but it seems like they’re doing just what is required and nothing more, which might be the point. The production design of the house they spend the weekend at is gorgeous, with beautiful artwork waiting around every corner. The cinematography has some nice shots, one in particular stuck out as they arrive at the cottage and the camera inexplicably rises up above the roof of the house and we see the trees swaying in the night breeze. It looked neat but was also a bit perplexing. But ultimately the story, how quickly it goes off the rails and the wildly outrageous premise propel this story forward and we have no choice to stay until the last morsel is gone.

SUMMARY - FRESH is a love story with a bit of a twist, we’re interested in Edgar-Jones and Stan, as their relationship changes due to some differences in dietary restrictions, this weekend date gone awry becomes all the more compelling. Cinephiles, critics and general audiences alike might just find themselves hooked after they get a taste of FRESH.