valencia Writes

By Valencia Jermaine

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

I just finished watching the movie “Fresh” and I wanted to write my review while the content and imagery was still fresh in my mind. I know. Bad pun. I’m kind of sorry. No. Not really.

So, hold onto your body parts: there may be more puns to follow.

“Fresh” stars Sebastian Stan (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal). The story centers around a young woman named Noa (Edgar-Jones), who is looking for love in the big city. She’s on dating apps. She’s texting people. She even meets one douchebag in person (believe me…calling him a douchebag is incredibly appropriate) and has a very awkward meal with him before recognizing that she’s only wasting her time.

Her best friend, Mollie, insists that Noa need not worry about dating and she should just focus on herself. Noa agrees – in theory. Later, she ends up meeting a handsome stranger in the grocery store. His name is Steve (Stan). He’s quirky. He seems nice. He is weirdly charming and it’s endearing for about 20 minutes. The audience knows from the trailers of the movie that he’s too good to be true.

Steve asks for and gets Noa’s number and hence begins a brief tryst that lands them both in bed and entering into a relationship that we know is unwise. Mollie warns Noa about getting involved with someone that has so many red flags: he has no internet presence, he wants to take her away for the weekend, he seems too good to be true – a hot single doctor. Come on. We’re all: LISTEN to Mollie – the strong, independent black woman who has her head on straight.

Noa doesn’t listen. Why should she? We’re not even halfway through the film.

What follows next is a series of mostly predictable events that are disturbing, dark, and just freaking gross if you think too much about it. Imagine if Hannibal Lechter was a hot 30-something doctor with a large house out in the country and he meets Clarice Starling while shopping at the grocery store. They subsequently begin a passionate love affair (having sex once counts as a love affair, right?) after which Clarice goes off to god knows where ALONE with him; a place with no cell phone service and no internet.

That’s basically what this movie is about, but instead of having a sex filled romp in the woods like she’d planned, Noa is fighting for her life after she realizes that she’s one of many people on his menu. That’s right: He wants to have her over as dinner, not just for dinner. Noa doesn’t have time to eat her words after insisting that he’s a decent guy. She’s focusing on how to keep herself from being consumed by a group rich cannibals who have a taste for young women; all while being chained in a locked room.

Noa’s friend Mollie immediately senses trouble and follows her gut, however she also places in danger and on the menu.

I won’t spoil the ending, but suffice it to say, it was disturbingly and oddly satisfying to some degree. Let’s just say that it’s good to have a best friend that always has your back….and access to a shovel.

Keep your girlfriends close, ladies.