If movies didn’t need to be publicised in advance, audiences would be able to go into Fresh feeling entirely, well, fresh. They could spend the first half-hour savouring this wry take on the frustrations of modern dating, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, without realising that the film was about to morph from Sleepless in Seattle into Saw. At least the director, Mimi Cave, has one trick that feels subtly disorienting even if you know it’s coming: she withholds the opening credits until the 33-minute mark. This delineates the two contrasting parts of the movie, while also expressing on a structural level the idea that something is very wrong. If this is the beginning of the film, then what exactly have we been watching until now?
Anyone who has gone the distance with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-nominated Drive My Car will know the feeling. I saw the film in a crowded cinema where there were ripples of discombobulation when the opening titles appeared after 40 minutes or so. Back in the days of celluloid, there was always the possibility that the reels had been lined up in the wrong order, so it was amusing now to see those old analogue habits kick in, a few of us swivelling around in our seats to grimace at the projection booth.
