Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: FRESH [Sundance Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
The psychologically dance of a captor versus a captee is almost always one of escape of the latter. Structuring the influx of this against a world of dating where swiping left or right carries its own risks, "Fresh" (Midnight) (hailing from Searchlight Pictures) takes an interesting swing which for a good part of the film motions to an interesting psychological space. Sebastian Stan as a would-be suitor has in his career so far an interesting repertoire which means the aspect of good or bad in terms of the initial perception can be a wavering pendulum. As his foil in this game per se, Daisy Edgar Jones is a malleable face where there isn't as much expectation because she is in a way "fresh" to audiences as well. Without giving away too much of the plot, there are essences of the old school cult film "Parents" mixed with "The Vanishing" from a different point of view. The most interesting parts of the path are the supper scenes per se, not because of the macabre aspect of it (which is obviously part of the point) but because of the indecisiveness of one of the characters.
Certain choices obviously are a strategy but there is part of the morality in Edgar Jones which breaches a certain boundary (which gives the film its edge in a different way). The reverse of the other character is another but that also might be to a point indoctrinated as a foregone conclusion because it is way too far gone. That is why the power lurking in its background is crucial but never truly brought to the forefront. The connection and acceptance part of the story is what makes the film unusual because of certain character beats in the midsection. There is really only one way the film can really go (without utterly losing the audience) which makes sense but also is the less ambiguous route. "Fresh" is about thinking a different way but also recognizing that some people are just who they are but the rub is watching those characters come to a representation of who they are. "Fresh" however isa thriller and within the Midnight section so the texture of its knife's edge is, after a bit, a forgone conclusion. B-
By Tim Wassberg
