Surely not for the squeamish, this film will send you away with scars of your own.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 25, 2022

Screenwriter Boaz Yakin makes a stunning directorial debut with "Fresh," the gripping, finely acted tale of a 12- year-old's life on the mean streets of New York.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 15, 2020

Though well acted, and handsomely shot by veteran Adam Holender, Fresh sacrifices real emotion for thriller contrivances. It's a tourist's drive through inner-city hell.

| Mar 4, 2019

The movie's two instincts are at complete odds with each other.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 21, 2015

Glibly shocking, it would like you to think it deals with the hard realities of urban life, but in fact it uses its patina of social consciousness as a come-on for the most conventional kind of violent commercial filmmaking.

| Apr 21, 2015

A gripping story of survival on the streets and survival of the soul.

| Apr 21, 2015

It's rigorous and quite depressing fare.

| Apr 21, 2015

The strength of the piece is that it realises which aspects of its genre have been seen too many times, always coming back to Nelson's blank but expressive stare as he watches terrible things the director doesn't need to shove in our faces.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2015

Sean Nelson is a quiet revelation as the title character, a child who actively participates in what he regards as the only game in town, yet consistently demonstrates more caution and smarts than his friends or relatives.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 21, 2015

The absence of moralising and macho posturing gives authenticity and poignancy to the film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2015

The script by writer-director Boaz Yakin is fresh itself, marrying the physical violence of Fresh's world with the intellectual violence of competitive chess.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2015

[Fresh is] made with a subtle precision that suggests a Vermeer landscape of the ninth circle of hell.

| Apr 21, 2015

A hugely underrated crime drama, Fresh is worth discovering both for its air of authenticity and Sean Nelson's remarkable performance.

| Apr 21, 2015

This is kept alive largely through its first-rate performances, beginning with Sean Nelson's as the boy; Giancarlo Esposito is also a standout.

| Apr 21, 2015

Fresh appeals to the head as well as the heart.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2015

Sean Nelson, who turned 13 just before the film was shot, gives a fine, self-assured performance in the title role.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2015

An unpredictable and harrowing story that works on the surface as an unconventional thriller (an intricate plot) and underneath as a powerful story of love, sacrifice, willpower and the dehumanizing cost of violence and revenge.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2015

You may not believe a minute of it, though you won't forget Nelson's face.

| Original Score: B | Sep 7, 2011

Yakin has put some powerful drama up on the screen, and he has been assisted by no one more significantly than young Nelson, who plays Fresh.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2007