"Fresh" a deceptively sweet, wildly twisted piece of work

Fresh (2022)

Going in as fresh as possible, “Fresh” looks like a story as old as time — girl meets boy, girl trusts and falls for boy until boy wants girl . . . to join his meat business? Mimi Cave’s directorial debut is a wildly twisted piece of work in the skin of a hopeful soul-mate romance. Don’t read too much about it, and you won’t know what hit you. 

Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is tired of the Portland dating scene, especially after one bad first date with a scarf-wearing douche named Chad (natch). Just as she’s ready to give up, she goes to the grocery store and in person, for a change, meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), a funny, charming doctor. They have a moment over tasting cotton candy grapes, and he’s bold yet polite enough to get her number. From there, Noa and Steve go on an actual date, and before she knows it, he asks her to go away with him for the weekend to a surprise destination. Having not met Steve yet, Noa’s best friend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs) has her reservations, thinking this whirlwind relationship is moving too fast and that it’s a red flag Steve doesn’t even have social media (!). But considering Noa is used to being alone and having no other family, Mollie accepts Noa just taking a chance and going for it. It’s too bad that Noa and Steve’s simpatico relationship just can’t last because Steve has nefarious intentions for Noa.

For a while, “Fresh” is wonderfully sweet and funny, yet deceptively so, with a slight guard up that something could go nightmarishly wrong. It’s almost on the edge of “Hard Candy,” but the relationship here is actually age-appropriate. Though it’s a growing trend that no longer feels surprising, director Mimi Cave allowing 33 minutes to go by before the title card and credits drop actually makes total sense here. When that tonal shift happens, Cave knows how to put a pit in our stomach, as we sympathize for Noa and endlessly root for her to get out of this helpless situation. Luckily, the unpredictable surprises in plot and tone don’t end even when we know what’s at stake for Noa. Did somebody say “steak”?

The script by Lauryn Kahn (2018’s “Ibiza”) is incisor-sharp and ready to twist expectations to the point that it challenges Noa’s situation besides making her a prisoner. How long will she play into being interested to be part of Steve’s world, or has Steve actually groomed her to share his special appetites? We wait and find out. Cave’s direction is stylish with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski's swirling precision, and she infuses a dance-pop flavor, including the use of Animotion’s “Obsession” and “The Golden Girls” theme song “Thank You For Being a Friend.” She pushes the horror elements just enough to be sick but not unwatchable (kudos to the retch-inducing sound design when it’s dinner time). To confirm that Kahn and Cave know exactly what they’re doing, attention to details doesn't go unnoticed, like Noa’s dancing skills improving from an awkwardly cute side shuffle to a lower-key “Ex Machina” riff once Stockholm syndrome has seemingly set in for her, as well as Mollie and Noa’s specific goodbye ritual coming in handy like an unintentional S.O.S. to Mollie.

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Hulu’s “Normal People”) is appealing and relatable as Noa, whom we just want to see happy and enjoying her extra cherries in her Manhattan drinks without being drugged and handcuffed. Sebastian Stan uses his handsomeness both ways to make Steve impossibly charming but also possibly threatening and sinister, and he’s excellent in nailing both modes and during his dance breaks. He’s a long way from the Disneyfied roles the masses know him for and it’s a thrill to watch him be unleashed. Well-matched leads aside, Jojo T. Gibbs is instantly likable as the smart and persistent Mollie, this movie’s voice-of-reason character (like Lil Rel Howery’s Rod in “Get Out”) who will be an audience favorite. There are a few other pivotal characters, which won’t be discussed here, but another one is the only male character who ends up being decent (a bartender, played by Dayo Okeniyi, who hooked up with Mollie before and, to her convenience, served Noa and Steve on their first official date).

“Fresh” not only excels as a cautionary tale warning single ladies to strictly date someone with a social media presence and credentials, but it’s a ride of romantic-turned-survivalist depravity. If there’s the fear that director Mimi Cave’s film will slow to a crawl in the middle and not recover, it really, really sticks the landing in the final 15 minutes, where familiar comeuppance takes hold but satisfyingly pays off and deserves the communal theater experience. Darkly amusing, unsettling, and queasy in all the right ways, “Fresh” is a bracing horror-movie experience for the finest of tastes who savor a triple whammy of female friendship, a funny-sick punchline, and great credit-roll jam.

Grade: B +

Searchlight Pictures is releasing “Fresh” (114 min.) on Hulu on March 4, 2022.