expiration date
Imagine yourself standing in the frozen meal aisle of a grocery store, the fluorescent lights of the freezer illuminating your face as hundreds of boxes stare back. “Pick me!”, they all say, with their carefully curated pictures and slogans. You know that what you see on those packages is meticulously chosen by brand-management; the product within the packaging will match but to what degree is uncertain. You also know that you are hungry and, surely, hopefully, you can find one that will make you happy.
This is online dating and Fresh is here to talk about it.
Fresh is the first feature length debut from director Mimi Cave and writer Lauryn Kahn, who sought to tell a story of modern dating and the effects that relationships can have. First dates are often such a delicate, but exhausting, dance between performance, authenticity, and intention. Daisy Edgar-Jones, the actor that plays the main character Noa, describes this:
“In terms of dating, we project so much onto each other,” Edgar-Jones continues. “We have this preconceived idea of who someone’s going to be, and we want them to be a perfect version of that. It’s a lot of pressure to put on someone…
It is also a lot of pressure to put on ourselves, leaving us vulnerable to potentially ignore any red flags when we do find that potential someone - which is exactly what happens to Noa when she meets Stan.
The film goes on to take a look at what can happen when those red flags are ignored and what the consequences of staying, or being trapped, in a long term relationship can be. Mimi Cave comments on this:
“I think for me, a lot of the movie is about when you leave a relationship with someone who is perhaps toxic, perhaps narcissistic — whatever it is — and when you step out of it, you realize you feel like they have parts of you still that you didn’t get back,” Cave told The Hollywood Reporter. “That was my way into the film. I know what that feels like. I walk away from relationships, and I’m like, where did I go? I just let that person have those pieces of me. I gave them up so easily.” And there is the basis for one of the overarching metaphors of the film.
Fresh makes it clear how others can distill us down to a dating profile, neatly packaged and branded, much like those frozen meals, with little remaining of ourselves and our humanity.
-Bus
I love this movie and wish I would have had more time to work on this write up and do it more justice.. I highly suggest you read more into it if it interests you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8CBAB886vY
