Fresh – Film Review

Frustrated by scrolling dating apps only to end up on lame, tedious dates, Noa takes a chance by giving her number to the awkwardly charming Steve after a produce-section meet-cute at the grocery store.

With Fresh, director Mimi Cave obviously wanted to tell a story that went from zero to one-hundred real quick, and she succeeded immensely. This story starts off relatively simple, and can almost be described as feel-good for the first twenty minutes or so. But when the film opens up to us and rears its true head, that’s when things take a huge detour and thankfully, it’s for the better.

Fresh is a wild ride of a movie and one that I don’t want to talk about in too much detail in fear that I will give something away that shouldn’t be spoiled. All I’ll say is that cannibalism is a huge part of this film, so if that’s a subject that makes you feel completely sick to your stomach, you’re going to want to stay away from this film at all costs. I know, it has Sebastian Stan in it, but still, just stay away.

Speaking of Stan, he delivers one heck of a memorable performance here as Steve, an extremely charismatic guy that goes out of his way to make sure that his new girlfriend, Noa, feels safe, comfortable, and loved. His character is certainly multi-layered, and Stan more than rose to the occasion to bring this incredibly complex character to life. Obviously, not everyone could have portrayed Steve this way, but the casting director was right in choosing such a talented actor that I can only hope gets even more roles outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But as great as Stan is in this film, the real heart and soul of Fresh is easily Daisy Edgar-Jones, who portrays the aforementioned Noa. She sells every emotion the script asks her to show, which is a lot to say the least. Together, these two actors delivered some truly memorable performances, showing that with the right material, they can be absolute powerhouses.

Throughout the whole movie, I kept wondering why the film looked so stunning. Well, it was shot by Pawel Pogorzelski, so of course, it looked good. He previously served as the director of photography on Ari Aster‘s Hereditary, which just so happens to be my second favorite movie of all time, right behind his sophomore outing Midsommar. With Fresh, Pogorzelski once again proves that he is one of the best cinematographers alive.

There are some strange character decisions in Fresh that left me feeling more than a little cold, and there were a couple of instances in which the film seemed to take a detour from what it was all about, but mostly, that laser focus was there. Mimi Cave has made one wild film that certainly won’t be forgotten by those who see it anytime soon.