Mimi Cave’s feature debut, Fresh, all about the state of dating in the modern landscape, had its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It’s a timely and ever prevalent commentary on the dangers women face by doing something as innocent as going on a date. What starts as a modest affair very quickly descends into madness.
Written by Alex Gilston
Fresh follows Noa (Daisy Edgar Jones) who is struggling to find her way in the world of online dating, going on meaningless meet-ups and never finding the right person. That’s when she bumps into Steve (Sebastian Stan), at the grocery store, where they strike an instant connection. The first twenty minutes of Fresh paint a wildly different picture to the rest of the film. Its greatest strength is how wildly unpredictable it is and going into it with as little knowledge as possible is ideal. There are lots of toe-curling, pillow hiding moments and some moments might require the odd gasp or scream.
Daisy Edgar Jones fits perfectly into the role of Noa, playing the unbridled terror of the situation she finds herself in, but also portraying a cleverness throughout. Sebastian Stan on the other hand is terrifying as Steve showing off a plausible level of psychopathy without ever going too far over the top. His level headedness is what tops his performance off and it could truly be the strongest we’ve ever seen him in a feature film.
This is a wonderful debut from Mimi Cave, and an equally great effort from screenwriter Lauryn Kahn. A pairing that works to make a solid film in Fresh that takes a modern issue and dials it up to eleven to drive the point home. Again the less that is said about this film the better, however it's safe to say that when this does hit a general release it’s a film people will be talking about for a long time to come.
STAR RATING
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