Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Noa, an unlucky in love would-be cynic if not for meeting handsome Texan surgeon Steve (Sebastian Stan) at the grocery store. Seems like the perfect love story, right? “Fresh” premieres on Hulu on March 4. The film premiered at 2022 Sundance in the Midnight program. “Fresh” is directed by Mimi Cave and written by Lauryn Kahn. And while the plot is best kept under wraps, there is a mysteriousness to Steve’s (cannibalistic) courtship. The film aims to capture the horrors of modern dating seen through one young woman’s defiant battle to survive her new boyfriend’s unusual appetites. Star Edgar-Jones explained during the IndieWire Studio at Sundance that “Fresh” exposes “the difficulties we face in the world of dating now and in dating apps, and exploring this general level of fear that we live with as women without really realizing it, of their being a risk attached to a lot of things, even just walking home late at night, or meeting a stranger on a date.”
Director Cave added, “I knew I had to tap into something more personal just to really get myself there and wrap myself around this world. For me, I was really drawn more into the sort of power dynamics of the love relationship, and taking that into all sorts of different, more over-the-top aspects, and that was the thing that let me in there. We talk a lot about the commodification of women’s bodies.” IndieWire review‘s for the film credited Stan’s portrayal of Steve, his performance bursting with a “smarmy, maniacal energy, like a kind of sophisticated Tyler Durden who’s traded fight clubs for business ventures.” IndieWire wrote, “Cave has an imaginative sense of camera placement, and she’s an expert at inserting ultra-close-up shots at precisely the right moment to induce a laugh, gasp, or shiver. Her camera is always in service of the story, rather than distracting from it with artifice. That’s not to say that there aren’t visual jokes — there are, frequently — but to give them away here would be to spoil the fun.” Watch the trailer below! “Fresh” premieres March 4 on Hulu.
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