Fresh Review: Sebastian Stan Exudes Charm In Uneven Thriller [Sundance]
The world of modern dating — with its deep well of apps and swiping right and left in the hope that users will find someone they can share a connection with — has been explored onscreen in a myriad of ways. Fresh, with its double meaning, offers a different take, spinning together horror and dating in an interesting, if somewhat narratively hollow, way. Mimi Cave, in her feature directorial debut, joins with screenwriter Lauryn Khan to deliver an energetic thriller that doesn’t dig any deeper into its strong themes than it has to.
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is fed up with online dating, believing love isn’t meant for her in the way it is for others. She’s exhausted from dead-end first dates that lead to nowhere — that is, until she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), a charming plastic surgeon, at the grocery store. Surprised as she is that people can still meet each other outside of the dating apps, Noa is immediately taken with Steve and the pair get along swimmingly. At this point, Noa has a very go-with-the-flow attitude and agrees to go away with Steve on a weekend trip, a move her best friend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs) isn’t too thrilled about. Noa learns rather quickly that Steve’s job is a lot darker and far more disturbing than she thought.
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Fresh takes its time building up the characters and their relationships with each other before getting to the crux of the plot. That, in and of itself, is rather refreshing considering how many thrillers don’t wait before jumping right in, often to the detriment of the characters’ development. Noa’s backstory, as well as the reasons she’s resigned to being alone, are well established; it’s why the
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