Boaz Yakin is typically seen as a work-for-hire writer and director. It’s not his fault, he’s just a good writer with bills to pay, so he takes a lot of sub-par studio projects that don’t really offer him anything interesting to do in the script. So it’s weird that a movie like Fresh comes from someone with a track record for mediocrity, but Fresh really is one of the all time must see movie downloads.

Yakin wrote and directed the film after going into exile for some years. He was disillusioned with all the crummy studio work he was getting, all the uninspired, formulaic movies that were really just being made to sell more tickets and put more money in the studio exec’s pockets. He decided to leave Hollywood and not to come back until he had something to say. Fresh, then, is certainly saying something.

The film follows a young boy working as a drug mule for various mid-level dealers around the city. He makes anywhere from twenty to fifty bucks a run, and he’s been storing that money in a coffee can by the railroad tracks. The money really adds up when you save it, and Fresh is saving it. For what? We won’t say. Save to say that the way the movie plays out is really something.

Fresh spends one afternoon a week learning to play chess from his father, who is estranged from the rest of the family. These scenes are something like the Greek chorus scenes of the film, with Fresh reflecting on what’s been happening and contemplating his next move.

When two of Fresh’s friends are murdered by one of the street dealers he works with, and at the same time, his mother informs him that she’s going to have to give a couple of them up for adoption, Fresh puts a brilliant scheme into motion.

The plan is complex, but easy to understand after you see the whole thing play out. Fresh’s ingenuity is incredible, the way he plays one side against the other, all the while avoiding suspicion simply by virtue of being a child. They never suspect that they’ve been outwitted by a ten year old. So the question is how long he can keep the facade going, how long it takes to make everything work and free himself of these scumbag’s control over his life once and for all.

The tightrope he walks to work the scheme is suspenseful, dangerous, frightening, knowing that at any moment, they could catch on to him and put him under the ground.

The movie is really unlike any other. We’ve seen movies where the hero schemes their way out of trouble, rather than fighting or using guns, but rarely do we see a movie where that hero is a ten year old boy, rarely do we see a film with a child hero in a violent situation without being a fantasy family film like Home Alone. Fresh is real, raw, frightening, and fascinating.