Fresh

Like the speed chess games that twelve-year-old Fresh (Nelson) plays with his father (Jackson), Yakin films follows a subtle, powerful logic, slowly building from a tense, Brooklyn melodrama to a fever-pitched battle of wits where checkmate means certain death. At the age of 12, Fresh is already inured to the harsh realities of life on the streets. Between trying to make it to classes on time, he regularly acts as a courier for a Esteban and Corky, a dangerous pair of neighborhood drug dealers (Esteban deals heroin, Corky keeps up with crack) who both look on the young boy as their protégé. Although his parents are separated -- and Fresh is forbidden to see his father -- he still manages to meet him in the park where the old man teaches him the game of speed chess and imparts valuable life lessons. When a young girl whom Fresh has had his eye on is accidentally gunned down by Corky in a senseless schoolyard shoot-out, Fresh must suddenly come to terms with where his true allegiances lie. Applying his knowledge of chess to real-life situations, he maneuvers the two drug lords into a dangerous confrontation that could conceivably blow up in his face. This directorial debut from Yakim is a knockout, packing the kind of emotionally visceral punch you don't much see these days. Young newcomer Nelson, as Fresh, comes off as a quietly intelligent dynamo, subtly arranging the movements of others around him with the sly mastery of a Kasparov. Likewise, Jackson, in a decidedly sympathetic role as Fresh's wise, beer-guzzling, chess-playing father, is excellent. Maybe the only drawback here is languid pacing in the first third of the film. It takes a bit to get going, but once it does, Fresh never lets up.