| Written by Manon on January 22, 2022

For her directional debut, Mimi Cave didn’t hold back and that’s for the best! Her movie Fresh — premiering during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival — has been a huge success on the first day with a high score on Rotten Tomatoes (more than 90%). So why a movie about cannibalism is so good? Well because it’s actually way more than that.

First of all, there is a real depth to this story. Cave said it a few times and made it clear: the movie is globally about the fear of dating (toxic) guys as a girl. It’s a real satyr on what a lot of women face every day when they interact with men. Of course, not every guy is into cannibalism or gore stuff like that (and we’re thankful for that) but this extreme representation felt necessary to make people understand the goal of this movie. There are a few hints and puns made about it so the viewer understands the not-so-hidden message beyond this bloody comedy/thriller.

There is a super interesting thing about this movie: it is as fun as bloody. The gore scenes can be quite pictural but this aspect is only deepening the greatness of the movie. This duality is super important. It can leave the viewer a bit perplexed or lost, but only for the good. Because of course, this movie is meant to be disturbing as soon as it’s dealing with cannibalism stuff. The thing is everything in Fresh is made to make the viewer uncomfortable and deepen the fact that this feeling is very common for girls when it comes to dating, walking in the streets, or facing weirdos. Since this is the main subject of the movie, the graphics, set-ups, lights are all made to make the viewer understand what it would feel like to be in Noa’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones character) place and to go through what she’s enduring because of Steve (Sebastian Stan’s character).

With this very first movie, Mimi Cave also did a wonderful job at casting the perfect actors. Daisy Edgar-Jones is exactly what Noa needed to be and it feels like this character was written for her. She has this wonderful energy and is dealing with the different characters the way she’s supposed to. As for Sebastian Stan, the actor delivers what is (probably) his best performance ever, mixing darkness and humor in an amazing and perfect way. Just the same as Daisy Edgar-Jones, it feels like Steve was made for Stan.

The cinematography in itself is perfect to set the mood of the story. A lot of scenes are very red/orange which reminds of blood and are strong color, deepening the “evil” part of Steve and the story and recalling the blood and flesh (a reminder, again, of the cannibalism) as well as the distress and danger Noa is in. The camera movements are also well made and make perfect sense, sometimes bringing the gore idea of the story and sometimes letting appear enough to suggest an idea but not too much to let a part of suspense about what’s really happening and how is this exactly happening.

The whole movie is set and done perfectly and I wouldn’t be surprised if it receives a very positive acclamation. Everything about this is great and disturbing with an ongoing metaphor executed perfectly. Not a lot of thrillers or horror movies can claim to be well-made AND have a good storyline, but Fresh is certainly one of these rare films that can do both. The goal seems to let the viewer in a very disturbing and uncomfortable place and it works for sure! I wouldn’t recommend watching it in a light mood or if you don’t want to be grossed out.

To conclude, Fresh is what the gore genre needed to be represented. As fun as bloody, it’s creating mood swings and set a metaphor as heavy as accurate in real life, performed by actors almost too great.

About Sebastian Stan’s character: Steve is probably the darkest Sebastian Stan’s character out of all his filmography. He’s misogynistic, craving for blood but also quite funny and seductive. Everything in his personality is balanced and somehow opposed. He has a perfect disguise and Stan embodies perfectly this angel-faced true evil. Steve is the kind of guy a lot of people would describe as “love at first sight” but truly toxic and evil when getting to truly know him. Hiding behind great dance moves and charming approach, he has everything to charm— but also to kill. This character is a perfect representation of what a date-turned-wrong would look like and Stan gives us in him the best performance of his career (for now).

Write your own review about Fresh by filling out the following form!