Back in 1994, this film arrived
with a bit of a buzz from the awards it won at Sundance. It was being marketed
in the wake of gangsta films like Boyz n the Hood and Menace II
Society (because that’s what distributors do with films is cash in on
what’s popular), but, reviews noted, there was something different about this
drama. True, our central character, nicknamed Fresh (played by Sean Nelson), is
a 12-year old runner for drug dealers around town – particularly Esteban (played
by Giancarlo Esposito), a heroin dealer who takes a nearly paternal interest in
Fresh’s development because he can see his maturity and intelligence – but even
so, this film has very different aims from the juiced up melodrama of the
so-called ‘hood films of the early 90’s.
The film was the brainchild of
writer-director Boaz Yakin, who, after working on mainstream Hollywood films (The
Rookie and The Punisher, for example) for years, decided that he
wasn’t doing what he wanted to in the industry. Instead of fighting in the
system to scrape forward toward a compromised version of his vision, he moved
to Paris, vowing to return when he had something to day and was able to
exercise a reasonable amount of control over how it got made. And though maybe
he wasn’t able to continue that principle later in his career (he’s also
credited with writing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which makes
me sad), he got it right here for sure. The film constantly feels emotionally
dead-on and has a great ear for street dialogue, both at the adult level and of
the kids in the film.
Fresh is a smart kid alright, but
he’s helped immeasurably by his alcoholic father (played by Samuel L. Jackson)
who Fresh mostly finds hustling chess in Washington Square Park. He’s the
anchor for Fresh, teaching him to think strategically, plan ahead, to watch and
listen rather than leap into action. So when he has to make his own way because
his aunt can’t handle raising 11 kids in her small apartment, when a friend is
murdered in front of his eyes, when his sister’s drug habit starts to endanger
her life, Fresh uses his dad’s lessons to try to extricate himself from the
life he’s found himself stuck in.
In addition to Yakin’s terrific
script, he’s gotten terrific performances from almost all the central kids in
the plot, from Jackson, and especially from Esposito, who combines the right
touch of human tenderness with his violent ruthlessness. And then there’s Sean
Nelson as Fresh himself – a kid who seems wise beyond his years often from the
simple act of keeping quiet, listening and letting other people (meaning the
adults around him) show their hand. I’m not sure how much is the writing and
how much is Nelson’s work, but the role is great.
The film is intelligent, tense,
gritty, and sporadically violent (but not excessively or graphically so). It’s
shot by cinematographer Adam Holender, who’s something of an NYC grit
specialist, having shot Midnight Cowboy, Panic in Needle Park, Smoke,
and Street Smart, to name a few. He knows the streets of the city from
before the Guiliani whitewash of New York that makes it feel so different today
compared to the era of this film. And at pretty much every level, it feels like
the love and care Yakin took to make a film that meant something to him is
shared by cast and crew alike, because all the participants turn in A-level
work here.
If you feel like you’ve seen enough
“hood” films but haven’t seen this one, make room for one more, because it’s
not like any of the others. If you’ve seen it, but like me coming back to this,
it’s been 20 years or so, it’s most assuredly worth revisiting – it hold up
beautifully. A great, small, personal film of the type that made indie cinema
such an exciting idea once upon a time.
- Patrick Brown
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