Fresh (1994)

After a few minutes of watching Boaz Yakin’s film set in a Brooklyn ghetto I was thinking of John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood. Both films, loaded with “F bombs and “m-f”s provide a portal for white viewers to enter the red-lined world that white racism has created. And both feature a strong divorced father offering advice to a son in danger of being destroyed by the ghetto’s predators.

In Yakin’s complex story it is 12-year-old Fresh (Sean Nelson), already at his tender age running drugs for several local drug dealers. In the opening sequence he is delayed by a couple of deals so that he gets in trouble when he arrives late for school. The boy apparently has been profitting well, because when he sneaks off to uncover a large can hidden in a vacant lot so he can add to his stash, we see that the roll of bills is thick, and they are not just one-dollar bills. The boy is so noticeably smart, that at one point Corky (Ron Brice), one of his drug bosses, says to him, “Only reason you ain’t the man is you still too goddamn little, but, when you get bigger, you gonna be the man.” However, he might have added, “If you live long enough, that is.”

Fresh and his older sister Nichole (N’Bushe Wright) live with their Aunt Frances (Cheryl Freeman), a kindly woman who has crammed almost a dozen other children into the projects apartment she shares with her mother. (Her mother is the grandmother of all the children!)

We quickly notice that the children do not interact—they don’t even acknowledge Fresh when he returns home—but are glued to a TV or game screen. The drug-addicted Nichole is moving out to live with one of the drug dealers, Esteban (Giancarlo Esposito), because of her Aunt’s tight supervision. She tells Fresh she does not love Esteban but that he is her source for drugs.

At school Fresh’s homey is Chuckie (Luis Lantigua), an immature and over-confident boy who wants to be cut into Fresh’s business. Fresh puts him off, though together they own a pit bull named Roscoe. (One of the saddest scenes in the film will involve Roscoe!) Chuckie is prone to mouthing out in hard to understand bursts, such as in the following exchange, “I got the dope moves,” to which Fresh asks, “You got what?” “I got the stupid juice, I bust the stupid moves.” It becomes obvious that Chuckie is one of those ghetto kids bound to meet a bad end due to his own ineptness.

Another classmate is Rosie (Natima Bradley), who shares a mutual attraction with Fresh. They exchange gazes across the school yard and basketball court, this being commented upon by Chuckie. However, this is cut off in a playground sequence when Rosie spots and starts to move toward Fresh. A basketball player, teenaged Jake (Jean LaMarre), one of Fresh’s drug dealers, gets upset with a younger ball player and fires several shots at his opponent, one of his stray bullets hitting the girl in the throat. All the kids flee the playground, except for Fresh, who kneels by the fallen girl in a futile effort to staunch the flow of blood. He is still there when Lt Perez (José Zúñiga) arrives, but he refuses to tell him anything. Before fleeing Jake had threatened anyone who talks.

Periodically, Fresh rides the subway to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park where he meets his alcoholic father Sam (Samuel L. Jackson), a speed-chess champion. The boy engages him in a game of chess and receives another lesson in tough love based on his play. (The father constantly criticizes his son’s playing, “You’re playing each piece like losing it hurts. This ain’t checkers. You want my king, you got to come get my king. All these other pieces are just the means to do it.”) Fresh never wins, but when he is able to put Sam’s king in check, his father offers the only word of praise we will hear from his lips. Despite his leaving his son and daughter, it is evident that he still cares for Fresh.

From his father and chess Fresh has learned to look ahead. After the traumatic deaths of Rosie, and later of his homey, Chuckie, Fresh can see what fate awaits himself and Nichole. The latter is now in the hands of the ruthless Esteban, unless he does something. Thus, Fresh sets into motion an elaborate scheme that calls for the self-destruction of the various drug lords that threaten them. It involves lying and manipulation that will result in the deaths of several of the dealers, as well as the cooperation of Lt. Perez. It is brilliant but morally questionable, the boy now almost a 13-year-oldster fulfilling Corky’s prediction that the “little boy” would be “the man.”

Fresh, now cooperating with Lt. Perez, will find the safety that the Psalmist promises the Lord will provide, but we might think it comes from the boy’s morally questionable acts rather than from the Lord. Before vanishing into a witness protection program with his sister, the boy pays one last visit with his father. These are the last lines spoken in the film:

Sam: [Last lines in the film. Speaking to Fresh] You’re over an hour late. I passed up two easy fish waiting here for you. That makes me poorer by two dollars.

Sam: Not playing games here, got no time for that. Life’s got no time for your little boy games. Leave all that nonsense at home when you come here.

Sam: Alright, gonna put it on speed today. I ain’t stopping to give you any little tips either. You sink or swim on your own today, cause I’m not always gonna be there to hold your hand for ya.

Sam: Alright, you ready for the real thing? You read to come get it? You ready to come take it from your old man, you ready to be the king?

The last image we see is a close up of Fresh’s face. He does not utter a word in reply. What he does instead ought to make us think and reflect upon him and his actions. What is going through his mind at the moment? What has his coming sanctuary cost him? What do you think his future will be? Will he merely survive, or will he live in the fullest sense of that word?

The film is leaving Netflix at the end of July 2024 but is also offered on Prime Video and other streaming services.

This review will be in the August issue of VP along with a set of questions for reflection and/or discussion. If you have found reviews on this site helpful, please consider purchasing a subscription or individual issue in The Store.