FRESH (HULU) a Flowing Wisdom Review

FRESH is a blend of cliche and irony in the best way possible.

Meet cute in scene three after a bad date in scene number one? Check.

Call your best friend before AND after? Check.

That best friend, to friends' dismay, isn't so sold on Mr. Charming after an electric first date even though the sex was good? And why should we be HE DOESNT HAVE INSTAGRAM!

But, lying underneath all of these classical rom-com/romance beats over the first 30 or so minutes, is a tremendous, haunting score by Alex Somers, with the direction of Mimi Cave in her feature debut, that lets us know this isn't a neatly packaged 90-minute flick that we've seen over and over again- there will be a surprise. Precisely, at minute 34 when the levee, almost quite literally, breaks and we enter into what this movie really will be, and when the credits roll (an ode to one of this film's producers, Adam Mckay, who did something similar in VICE waiting until the end of act I) we realize we are entering into a completely different movie.

So then, we're left with 75 minutes of what the fuck is going to happen, thriller/horror wonderfulness where we have even more cliches.

Damsel in distress? OF COURSE the best friend is coming to the rescue.

Best friend tells a boy, that she's kind of manipulating, about said rescue/adventure and when he doesn't hear from her he comes running after her? YES why not.

But, this movie is so aware of itself that, frankly, towards the end you start to do the- "well if this is supposed to happen then they'll do this instead but they know I'm thinking that too so they'll probably...". Cave does a great job of going against the grain, in a fresh way (pun intended), that isn't beating us over the head with its cleverness while simultaneously keeping this movie's form- which is to say its disturbing/horrific/comedic self. This movie is very funny! AND it almost made me throw up! 2-for-1.

This feels like a stepdaughter to GET OUT, but FRESH also has a dreadfulness and doom in the way the HOSTILE franchise does evoke those feelings out of you no matter what. It also shares a kinship with one of my favorite movies in recent memory, PROMISING YOUNG WOMEN, with the music choices adding to the absurdity and shotmaking on screen.

Daisy Edgar-Jones (23) is in the center of this movie following a harrowing, worldly debut to most from Hulu's NORMAL PEOPLE (which was incredible in no small part because of her), while Sebastian Stan (39) continues his tour de force over the past few years taking over the Marvel universe and every interesting part outside of it.

Despite the age difference in reality, on screen they actually seem like a decent match. While DEJ is too young to fully comprehend, and I'd argue act out, the tropes of how brutal dating is in your 20s, once we exit this short segment of this film her performance really takes off. She brings a different energy than a Maika Monroe in IT FOLLOWS, that performance is more energetic, and this one is more damming, depressing.

Stan plays the bad guy, and he does so in a way that almost makes us like him- but we really don't. His charisma like always is leaping and bounding off the screen, which is a key contrast to DEJ's subtle, yet powerful presence.

This is not trying to win an Oscar, and it won't, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it? I did, a great movie to watch morning afternoon or night- watch it with someone special and you'll be talking about it for hours after.