Synopsis: The horrors of modern dating seen through one young woman’s defiant battle to survive her new boyfriend’s unusual appetites.
Director: Mimi Cave
Stars: Sebastian Stan, Daisy Edgar-Jones
If I was about to fly somewhere, especially overseas I probably wouldn’t watch Lost right before doing so. If I was going to stay in a motel off the beaten path, I probably wouldn’t watch Vacancy right before doing so. And if you are about to embar on a first date, you may want to skip Fresh.
That isn’t meant to be an insult to any of those projects especially the one we are about to discuss, but it does speak to how effective they are.
Fresh is a new film from director Mimi Cave, who after many short films makes her feature film debut with this film. The film focusses on Noa (Edgar-Jones) a woman who doesn’t seem to have any luck in the dating world. She meets guys, who seem like they could be her Prince Charming but after being face-to-face with them she realizes, they are just frogs.
One day at a grocery store (always a great place to meet people) she comes across Steve (Stan) and they hit it off..quite well.
She starts telling her closest girlfriend about him and things seem like she finally met a good guy. Sebastian Stan is perfectly cast in this role. He’s a good looking guy with the ‘awe shucks’ charm needed to pull off such a grocery store ‘meet-cute’.
But just when you think that Noah and Steve could be leading to something wonderful you are reminded of the fact that this film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight category and what you need to know about films in a film festivals Midnight category is that these films get dark really quick.
It turns out our charming guy Steve is holding a secret. He wants Noa’s meat. And no, I don’t mean ‘Hey, are you going to finish that steak?’ I mean he wants her…meat. Turns out there a group of wealthy men who pay for such things.
I found this film to be somewhat uneven. The beginning of the film and end of the film are strong, but I was left scratching my head at points during the middle. In many horror/thrillers the audience is left wondering why certain characters do the things they do and this movie is no exception to that.
Overall, this film had decent performances from Edgar-Jones and Stan. It takes the fears of dating to the extreme and some parts of the movie work for me, just not all of it.
Grade: B-
0 Comments