Fresh (2022) SPOILER FREE Review: A Fiendish Feast of a Rom-Com
- Beanie White
- Mar 28, 2022
- 4 min read
You settle down to scroll through Disney + the family friendly streaming service packed with quaint animated classics and modern Pixar gems. You’re looking for something light, something happy but not a cartoon flick. Ah Fresh (2022), starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, she created quite a buzz in that Hulu series recently didn’t she? And ooh Sebastian Stan you love him as Bucky Barnes in the MCU (who doesn’t). You scroll through the little synopsis, essentially a chickflick movie about the horrors of modern dating. Could be worth a watch, you think to yourself, it’s a nice easy romcom with two attractive leads after all… *insert evil laugh here*.
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is exhausted by modern dating; sick of wading through a sea of scarf-wearing chads, she is delighted when she meets the ineffably charming Steve (Sebastian Stan) who seems to be worlds away from the dating app “dudebros” of the 21st century. They embark on a whirlwind romance replete with supermarket puns and quirky dance sequences, until they decide to take a mini vacation, much to the concern of Noa’s best friend Mollie (a killer supporting turn from Jonica T. Gibbs). But coincidentally the traffic is too bad on the night they are due to travel and so they end up back at Steve’s place, a concerningly lavish pad with a minimalist approach to décor (aside from the brazen explosion of a painting that takes pride of place on his living room wall). I’ll let you find out for yourself exactly what happens next but let’s just assume that it takes quite a turn (I wouldn’t watch whilst you’re eating) …
This is a movie of two distinctive parts, a meet-cute followed by a little love story and then SOMETHING happens at around half an hour in and the opening titles roll. Perfect, such a fantastic technique and it had me laughing out loud at its sheer boldness. It’s a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, which just makes part two even more overwhelmingly delicious. Perhaps unknowingly, we consume movies through Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze (I’m getting a little into film theory here but bear with me). This just means that the audience are positioned to enjoy women in film through a male lens, often sexualising women and watching them become damsels in distress or relying on the love of a male character as the key component of their character arc. Fresh (2022) certainly starts that way, however if you pay attention to the way in which the men are portrayed – Noa watches as her date’s scarf trails in his food, a man sucks his fingers loudly in the supermarket aisles, Steve clicks his tongue at any opportunity, an unflattering dick pic is received – it could be theorised that this movie presents us with a unique look at a vengeful female gaze. It’s sort of exciting and thrilling to watch men presented in this way. This is not an overt dig at all men (I feel like I have to clarify this) but more an overexaggerated satirical look at the ways in which women are treated by men and the idealisation of the manner through which we might take our revenge/fight back. Even the ending rebukes and excludes men as the main narrative pull, leaving us with an unlikely final female villain and a striking realisation that at its core this is also a movie about sisterhood and women surviving together against all odds.
This isn’t a movie without flaws, the dialogue can be a bit too on the nose and I would have preferred Noa to be a little more fleshed out (pardon my pun) to avoid becoming a sort of cliched damaged girl. That being said, Daisy Edgar-Jones is a fantastic actress, and she gives the character a fierce likeability that helps us to overlook any script-based shortcomings. Credit must go to Director/Writer Mimi Cave for managing to push this movie through a slew of controversy (ahem, Armie Hammer anyone?) and create such an entirely satisfying little gem of a debut feature film. Really the wonderful thing about this movie is that I just want to keep talking about it. It is so fantastically disguised in its depravity that it begs to be viewed with an open mind and a strong stomach. Plus, the use of the end credits song (Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs) blaring matter-of-factly as we are treated to one more laughably relatable shot of what it looks like to be a woman in the 21st century is nothing short of genius.
Maybe this movie is for me, for women from all walks of life struggling with the ever-present dirge of sexism. But does that mean men shouldn’t be watching? Absolutely not Chad, get your head out of your backside and take some accountability.
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