Sundance Film Festival 2022: Fresh Explores The Horrifying Side Of Modern Dating
It’s tough out there in the dating pool.
After swiping right on dating apps and going on another dud of a date, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is fed up. That is until she meets funny and sweet Steve (Sebastian Stan) at the grocery store. If this were a typical rom-com, Fresh would end there, with Noa finding true love by the Cotton Candy grapes. But Mimi Cave has a different plan for her feature directorial debut premiering at Sundance Film Festival 2022 that takes a sinister turn when Steve invites Noa on a weekend getaway and shows his true colors.
It’s best to go into Fresh without spoilers so you can truly appreciate the wild places the film goes to. Lauryn Kahn’s original script delivers a darkly comedic and twisted allegory about dating culture and the ways some men exploit and mistreat women. Cave is the perfect person to direct, bringing Kahn’s script to life with edgy style, grotesque sequences, and meaningful parallels, punctuated by a stellar retro soundtrack. Sebastian Stan gives a career best performance, spanning from awkwardly charming leading man to full on unhinged American Psycho vibes. Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones delivers a strong performance as she focuses on playing the game Steve has set up. Jojo T. Gibbs plays Noa’s best friend Mollie, who is one of the smartest characters, but doesn’t get as much screen time as she deserves.
A disturbingly gory feature that explores the horrifying side of modern dating, Fresh isn’t for the faint of heart. The film hits Hulu on March 4.
See Pop Culture Planet’s Best of the Fest, below:
