So i have not done a film review for awhile
because i have not seen a good film in awhile and no new films have caught my eye
so i thought to go into the archives
and see what hidden gems could i find
and i uncovered fresh via a film listing site
so i decided to watch it
so in short it was a masterpiece
it was layered in so many ways and a view lens you never see
and to think it is nearly two decades old
so the movie starts off with this kid juggling
running errands of the sinister kind and juggling schooling
which will be referenced later
we find out this kid is also part of a big family with up to thirteen people in one house
and he is surrounded by profanity and he is the lens we see it through
surrounded by this
and still innocent with this
it is a finely woven story with depth
but on top of this he is a genius
which i will go into depth in another post
and though when most people think of genius
i do not know how many pages you will go through before you would see a person such as him
but non the less he is a genius
and is noticed by the people he is in league with
it is slowly hinted at us and with some tongue in cheek references
such as with the monetary transactions
and they trying to shortchange him
and with him boldly correcting them and putting them in their place
such as when a purchaser asks him the price
and he goes 5 a pop
the guy goes give me 5 for 20
he replies 5x5 =25
and its 5 a pop
and from their it jumps
their is a few scenes where these kids his friends from school
are
talking about girls in a crude malformed way
and of fathers and mocking the guy in the white shirt
with the outlandish claims of what his father is and does
meanwhile we have not seen the main character
be with a father figure
except for the dealers
we first see this big shot playing chess
and we see him beat by our little genius
who then sits down with his father to play chess and loses
but it is more than a game it is a weird sort of intimacy
and nurturing
where he teaches him life lessons whilst teaching how to play chess
he seems so collected you wonder why he is not raising him
and then we see the brown paper bag
and though this kid is wise beyond his years he is swimming with sharks
which is perfectly portrayed in this shooting where
this talented kid playing basket ball
with the older kids is schooling them
and this one kid
who is the leader of the bunch
decides to take it no more
and fouls him sending him a message
but the message is soon forgotten when
the kid decides to take him on and humiliate him
which prompts the guy to go reach for a gun killing him and our main characters
innocent first crush
along with his friend
which was such a metaphor for though he may be bright and talented he is vulnerable
but another metaphor came up shortly after
in
for in the scene the dog is whimpering and scared and the other dogs is viscous
ready to fight ready to kill
and the main character called fresh
does not want him to fight
but when the dog fight he wins almost instantly
as if there was more fight in him or he was playing possum
or their was something buried inside of him
or merely the will to survive
this spoke to me of fresh
he seems weak compared to them but perhaps there was something more to him
a grit
especially being surrounded with the harshness of his surroundings
and if he did not want to become like the talented basket baller
an icaruseque flying to high to have his wings melted
his dead must of seen the message
for his message becomes more centered more direct
and has steel centered behind it
giving an alternate yet power image of the game chess
machavilainesque it could be said
for hr tells him
what is my game
how do i play
am i defensive
or offensive
yeah thats right i am neither
i play my opponent
if he is defensive
i make him take risks
if he is offensive i force him to defend
you need to play your opponent sun
and leave all your problems at the door
for with you you like the knight a lot dont you
you like his unpredictability
but it hurts you when he goes
and you retreat your queen
when ever it is threaten
the queen is just a fancy pawn
they are all fancy pawns you want my king you have to come get it
that is the aim of the game
i paraphrase
but that hit me
for yes when any pawn reaches the other side the pawn can become anything but a king
so a pawn is endless
and then there is another powerful scene
When we see his fathers inner sanctum
it is a weird place tight but compact
but we see his flaw where he offers fresh a drink
and all he has is beer
but then we see the conflicted character
of how someone so gifted is where he is
on the right you see three simultaneous games side by side
and he tells us he is playing with world champions and one against himself
and we here from fresh he is loosing in all three
the man who looks invincible in his previous
scenes
we a sense of fragility
and we see on the wall the pictures are references
of famous players like bobby fischer
and of grand masters who he knows and plays against
he recalls how though they maybe getting government grants for playing chess
he could beat them in his domain speed chess
and how it is a different kettle of fish playing under pressure
and it parallels with fresh
the often names of genius you come across how would they suit in the domain fresh is in
and the disparity
where his father plays in a park for dollars whence others are world renown and have movies made after them
and the side of glass you are on
or
this hit me immediately
when he uses a certain racial epithet slash slang word
and his father rebukes him
and he is defiant about saying that word if he wants
this is the first time we see him undermined
and it is a point of reflection
about the use of the word
well the father sees the pitfalls behind
but the kid in defiance and familiarity sticks up for it
and it is another peak into why he is not in the care of his father
in conclusion of the hidden beauty
overlooked perhaps never seen you roses in concrete
some will see your arched contorted spine
and smile for your spine is just like theirs
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