Fresh (1994)

Directed by

Boaz Yakin

Genre

drama film, crime film, hood film

Country

France, United States

Runtime

1h 49m

Rated

R

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 244 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A preteen boy named Fresh runs drugs for gangsters in New York City. He uses chess lessons from his father to craft a plan to free himself and his addicted sister from their dangerous lives.

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What happens

Fresh is a 1994 French/American independent crime drama film written and directed by Boaz Yakin in his directorial debut, and produced by Randy Ostrow and Lawrence Bender. It was scored by Stewart Copeland, a member of the Police. The story revolves around a preteen boy named Michael, nicknamed Fresh (portrayed by Sean Nelson), who runs drugs for gangsters. Inspired by the chess lessons of his father, an alcoholic speed-chess master (Samuel L. Jackson), Fresh devises and executes a brilliant plan to extricate himself and his drug-addicted sister (N'Bushe Wright) from their hopeless lives. Marketed as a hip hop hood film, Fresh went relatively unnoticed by the public, but won critical acclaim. Critics praised the film for offering a realistic glimpse of life in New York City's public housing projects during the crack epidemic. "There's shocking resonance to the notion of a grade-school boy who's become a criminal out of sheer pragmatism", wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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