fresh
Warning: some spoilers ahead.
'Fresh' (1994) is one of those films that is best seen at least twice. The first time to be taken by surprise, and the second time to fully appreciate the subtlety of this powerful and genre-defying film, the basis of which is a script of rare intelligence. Due to some serious mismarketing, it never reached the audience it deserves, and you may have to wade through the trashy action section at your local videostore in order to find it.
The directorial debut of Boaz Yakin, produced by Lawrence Bender (of 'Reservoir Dogs' fame), 'Fresh' was mostly labeled as yet another ghetto film when it came out in the wake of such successes as 'Boyz n the Hood' and 'Menace II Society'. But while the film takes place in Brooklyn with an almost all-black cast, it shares little of the loudmouth and violent cliches we've come to associate with the 'hood. Its majestic, dreamily poetic soundtrack by ex-Police-man Stewart Copeland - possibly his best since 'Rumble Fish' but unfortunately never released - also points to the different ambitions this film has. Perhaps 'urban drama' would be a better label, though that might imply too much sentimentality for a film that lacks precisely that.
The main character, twelve year old Michael (Sean Nelson), aka Fresh, runs the streets for the local drug lords (Giancarlo Esposito, among others), as a side job before and after school. As one of them says: "Nobody will be looking for something so big on someone so small." Fresh lives with his aunt Francis and eleven other children in a cramped apartment. His sister Nichole (N'Bushe Wright), a couple of years older, is already falling prey to drugs, spending her days in a numb haze. Fresh secretly sees his father Sam (Samuel L. Jackson), an alcoholic speed chess player on Washington Square, who teaches him the art of chess, which from the beginning serves as a metaphor for life.
Everything lost can be found again, except for time wasted.
While 'Fresh' contains little violence - and what violence there is is suggested rather than shown graphically - the story does pivot on a few brutal moments. The first of these, an agonizing scene which will trigger further events, is when Fresh witnesses the random shooting of the girl he has a crush on at a neighborhood basketball court. Even if the actual shooting occurs offscreen, it jolts us into seeing just how violent the world is in which Fresh grows up. For all the kids fleeing the scene - the court is deserted in seconds - this is normal, way too normal.
This shocking event causes Fresh to rethink his own situation and devise a desperate plan to get out of it. But Nelson portrays Fresh silently, with a poker face, a streetwise kid who has learned never to betray any emotions. After the death of his friend he sets up a chessboard in his room, and starts a game against himself. His next move is to take all his savings - money earned with drug running, stashed away beside a rusty railway track outside of town - and use it to set an elaborate trap for the two rivalling drug lords he works for. The intricacies of the plan he proceeds to orchestrate need not be revealed here. Suffice it to say they mirror, step by step, the strategies of a chess game, with Fresh putting into action the lessons he has learned from his father.
You're hoardin'. You're playin' each piece like losin' it hurts. This ain't checkers. You want my king. You got to come get my king. All these other pieces are just a means to do it. (...) Your queen is just a pawn with a lot of fancy moves. Nothing more.
Throughout this high-stake game, Fresh keeps his poker face, revealing his motives purely on a need-to-know basis - and that includes us viewers. While at first we may presume his plan to be directed at revenge, it becomes clear he is after more: he wants nothing less than a new life for himself and his sister, far away from their crime and drug-ridden environment. "I don't wanna live in no more projects," he says. In retrospect, it was for this that his queen, as well as several other "pieces", had to be sacrificed.
By the time Fresh's plan succeeds and he has won his own game, we have almost forgotten that this is not a professional chess player, nor a tough old gangster, but a twelve year-old child. This realization is kept for the final scene, when it is all over and Fresh sits down for another chess game with his father, who has no idea of the real-life chess his son has been playing. In what must be one of the most heart-wrenching closing scenes ever, Fresh lets out all his pent-up emotions - for the first time in the entire film - and starts crying.
After this intense and layered gem, what a pity Yakin has never come close to this level of perfection anymore.
Viewing tip: watch this film with English subtitles. The DVD's sound quality is not ideal, and the ghetto slang is difficult enough to follow as it is.