If you tend to take spoiler warnings casually, take it more seriously with “Fresh” (Hulu) when it comes up later in this post. Writer Lauryn Kahn and director Mimi Cave have long resumes of short films, but this is a stunning feature-length debut. The story makes a sharp mid-film left turn, but the work on both sides of that turn is equally sharp.
An appetizer before the feast
Their short-film expertise is on display in the romantic-dramedy opening act, a commentary on the frustrations of the dating scene for 20-something Noa (a lovable Daisy Edgar-Jones). It’s almost parodic, but if you’ve observed the real world lately, you know reality is not easily distinguishable from parody.
First, she goes on a date with a passively aggressively insulting Chad – who is literally named Chad (Brett Dier). Then she meets the not-as-smooth — but that makes him adorable — Steve (Sebastian Stan) in a grocery store meet-cute.
“Fresh” (2022)
Director: Mimi Cave
Writer: Lauryn Kahn
Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs
Noa and Steve have a comfortable chemistry; conversation comes easily deep into their dates, even though they both confess to hating the dating process. But will the relationship be smooth? Um, not exactly.
Throw in some typical single-gal struggles like Noa having to worry about her safety when merely venturing to the store at night in the big city, and “Fresh” is a snapshot of the modern age.
But these sequences are familiar to moviegoers, and while we immediately like our protagonist, this is ultimately a sweet but disposable 30-minute short. But the rom-dram ends with a twist, and then the opening credits kick in. (For a split-second I wondered if they were the closing credits, because it’s so deep into the movie.)
With a twist (Spoilers)
(SPOILERS FOLLOW. SERIOUSLY, BEWARE SPOILERS.)
When Steve reveals he has drugged and chained up Noa at his remote rural home not to rape and murder her (at least not immediately), but rather “for her meat,” Kahn and Cave give a clear signal:
- If you’ve mistakenly thought you were watching a romance film, well, you’ve at least enjoyed the first half-hour and can now stop and perhaps rewatch “I Want You Back” instead.
- If you knew you were watching a horror film but wondering when the horror would start, well, it starts now.
The sharp left turn reminds me of “The Perfection” (2019), another sneaky-good streaming horror flick. The genre-switch based on the plot twist isn’t all that jarring, though.
After the 30-minute rom-dram, we’re with Noa. I’m not female and I don’t date, but by this point of the film, I’m in her shoes, worrying about how I’ve signed myself up for a violent death just by having horrible taste in men.
A tasty pairing (Spoilers)
Interestingly, the chemistry between Edgar-Jones and Stan continues to pay off in the captive-captor relationship. Edgar-Jones has to do subtle work. To get out of this extreme situation, Noa will not only need to stop being passive, but also to pretend to like Steve and to be a cannibal herself.
Or maybe she actually does like human meat? This is one area where “Fresh” pulls up short, choosing to not go full Hannibal-and-Will. Maybe Kahn and Cave wanted to minimize “Hannibal” comparisons, but most likely they wanted Noa to stay a pure heroine.
Also, “Fresh” could’ve gone much gorier. Noa supposedly gets her buttocks hacked off by Stan, but – after a period of limping around – we see her later in a tight dress and both cheeks appear intact.
What we do see is sometimes harrowing, though, and “Fresh” gets dark mileage out of teasing our imaginations. Noa’s captives in nearby cells, Penny (Andrea Bang) and the heard-but-never-seen Melissa (Alina Maris), seem to be losing their humanity.
Melissa is insane, and we imagine Penny is down to just a torso and a head. It turns out she’s only missing a lower leg, the same plight as Steve’s wife Ann (Charlotte Le Bon), a creepy Stockholm Syndrome victim to contrast with Noa’s path-not-taken.
A flavorful blend (Spoilers)
Keeping us from wallowing in Noa’s captivity are side trips with Noa’s friend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs). The bestie in “Get Out” knows to watch out for his black friend in a suspicious situation; the bestie here knows to watch out for her female friend in a suspicious situation.
The film not only smoothly addresses horror’s “cellphone problem” (Steve’s place is remote, with no signal) but also uses technology such as an image comparison search in Mollie’s quest.
“Fresh” is sometimes labeled as “comedy,” which is itself hilarious considering the subject matter. But it’s not totally mislabeled. This brand of humor is so pitch-black that it doesn’t garner a smile. But “Fresh” does use the cannibal subgenre to comment on the 2022 dating scene, so that has to make it a comedy, right?
A final gag with a cellphone message from Chad locks in the fact that “Fresh” is a commentary piece. It could’ve gone deeper with its thematic observations (a quibble I also had with the otherwise excellent “X”). But by keeping things (relatively) light, it keeps the grim happenings remarkably watchable.
As I thought about the not-fully-tapped ideas when the credits (the final ones, this time) rolled, I realized there will almost certainly be a “Fresh 2.” It almost has to go further into comedy or horror, and it has little chance of matching the originality. “Fresh’s” bizarre but effective genre mix likely has an expiration date, so enjoy it while it lasts.