Fresh (1999, DVD)

It s probably impossible to make a list of all the ghetto movies that have been released since Boyz N The Hood broke new ground in 1991. It was made on a relatively small 6 million budget, had no huge stars and was helmed by a young director who had no experience. It overcame all of this to become a moderately large hit; it also happened to be a very good movie about life in the hood that didn t go overboard and remained believeable all the way. The same cannot be said for its many imitators, many of which failed to capture the original s realism. Fresh is not one of those movies; it presents.

I remember when I first saw this movie. Back in college, someone rented it for a dorm function, and once the lights darkened, everyone in the room was spellbound by the gripping story unfolding before them. When the lights came up after it was finally over, we were all like, whoa, that was deep. We must have stayed in the viewing room for over an hour analyzing and discussing it trying to figure out all the angles and critical points in the film. Fresh is one of those movies that you definitely want to talk about with friends after it s over. Something made me think of the movie recently, so..

Fresh is a 12 year old African-American kid with an abundance of street smarts and a stash of several thousand dollars squirrelled away in an old tin can under the floorboards of a condemned tenement. He's a consummate wheeler-dealer, a drug runner who lives his life on the gritty streets of ghetto Brooklyn. He lives fast and hard and at the rate he's going, he'll be lucky to see his thirteenth birthday. Fresh's real name is Michael, and he lives with his Aunt Frances, a self-abnegating caretaker of eleven of Fresh's cousins, who have found with Aunt Frances the first stable home of their...

The title refers to the lead character, who could ironically be described, by the end of the movie, as a young urban professional. No suit and tie or luxury car for Fresh, however; just his own two feet and an old ratty backpack. No condo for this youngster, just a hole in the projects to share with about a dozen of his brothers and sisters. He's also one of the many low men on the drugs totem pole in his part of the city, one part dealer and one part errand runner. He spends every afternoon playing speed chess with his father (Samuel L. Jackson) in the park. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. He's...