This film doesnt come near receiving the credit it deserves..i was happy to see it at least has a 7 on IMDB. Sean Nelson should have gotten the rave reviews and academy award nomination for this work that mr haley joel osment got for 6th Sense. This kid was incredible, as the focal point for a gritty story about life in the south bronx, and how the chess games he plays with his father (Samuel L at his subtlest and best...) provide an analogy for his strategy to get he and his sister away from the drugs and poverty of the projects. Giancarlo esposito and nbushe wright give stellar performances, and Fresh's friend Chuckie is a definite scene stealer. There are some disturbing scenes here, especially a playground massacre with child victims. All in all a powerful and seamless story.

This slice of ghetto life is like nothing else I ave seen. A young drug runner decides he wants out of the life. He also wants to save his sister, who has taken up with one of the kid's drug kingpins. In order to get out, he has to do some pretty fancy footwork. But he is a master strategist as we see when he plays chess with his dad. Wonderful location photography and acting, with a large cast of mostly unknown actors except for Sam Jackson as the dad and Giancarlo Esposito as the drug kingpin. The plot doesn't necessarily go in the direction you might think. There is a fair amount of violence, but most of it is off camera or quickly cut away from.

"Fresh" (Nelson), the title character and a black kid in his early teens, is a runner for low level drug distributors in the mean streets of NYC with a plan to get out of the ghetto. He plays speed chess with his estranged father and stashes money in a tin can but his plan goes well beyond just saving for a bus ticket. "Fresh" offers good production value, par performances, somewhat stereotypical characters, and lots of grit. However, what sets this critically lauded flick apart from its peers is a human drama with a clever storyline which transcend the usual stuck-in-the-ghetto flicks full of sensational crime stuff. An engaging watch for those into drug/ghetto/crime flicks. (B)