Fresh

Fresh is a 1994 American crime drama film written and directed by Boaz Yakin in his directorial debut, also produced by Randy Ostrow and Lawrence Bender. It was scored by Stewart Copeland, a member of the Police. The story revolves around a preteen boy named Michael, nicknamed Fresh (portrayed by Sean Nelson), who runs drugs for gangsters. Inspired by the chess lessons of his father, an alcoholic speed-chess master (Samuel L. Jackson), Fresh devises and executes a brilliant plan to extricate himself and his drug-addicted sister (N'Bushe Wright) from their hopeless lives. Marketed as a hip hop 'hood film, Fresh went relatively unnoticed by the public, but won critical acclaim. Critics praised the film for offering a realistic glimpse of life in New York City's projects during the crack epidemic. "There's shocking resonance to the notion of a grade-school boy who's become a criminal out of sheer pragmatism", wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman. Plot Twelve-year-old Michael, nicknamed "Fresh", stops at a Latina woman's apartment to pick up dime bags of heroin before he goes to school. Fresh notices that she has given him the wrong amount, trying to swindle him out of his delivery. Fresh warns her that his boss Esteban will be angry with the incorrect amount. The woman, a drug addict, "finds" the missing bag. He leaves, disgusted.