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

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

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 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

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

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

A stylish, affecting, ingeniously plotted first feature.

| Jan 26, 2006

The subject and visual style could not be more forcefully matched.

Full Review | May 20, 2003

The acting by Esposito and Jackson is exceptional, but it is on the remarkable face of Nelson that Yakin shows what gets lost when a child beats criminals at their own game.

| May 12, 2001

Yakin may be a novice, but from the movie's first poetic images, this gifted young filmmaker tells his story with a sure, distinctly personal voice.

| Jan 1, 2000

It takes a bit to get going, but once it does, Fresh never lets up.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

[Fresh] is urgently lyrical, right down to its final, haunting image. And in lead performer Sean Nelson, first-time filmmaker Yakin has a 12-year-old breath of fresh air whose beatific face could launch a thousand scripts.

| Jan 1, 2000

Here's a movie filled with drama and excitement, unfolding a plot of brilliant complexity, in which the central character is solemn and silent, saying only what he has to say, revealing himself only strategically.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000