Product Details

• Actors: Taye Diggs, Dominique Swain, Mia Kirshner, Meredith Monroe, Scott Bairstow
• Directors: Zoe Clarke-Williams
• Writers: Victoria Strouse
• Producers: Frank Mancuso Jr., Tom Gorai, Vikki Williams
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: December 3, 2002
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000068QJQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,925 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A breath of fresh air in a stale genre, Zoe Clarke-Williams's canny look at the catty world of college cliques is the smartest dissection of the complex world of class envy, social acceptance, and the seduction of privilege since Heathers. But this drama plays it for tragedy. Local working-class girl Mia Kirshner is transformed from social outcast to campus Cinderella and adopted into the hedonistic party world of a trio of rich fun-loving sorority princesses (Meredith Monroe, Dominique Swain, and Rachel True), and comes out the other end in a drug-induced coma. Confidently directed and elegantly constructed in puzzle-piece flashbacks, this sensitive, sympathetic, smartly made drama is refreshingly free of glib moralizing, the rare young-adult film that twists the usual clichés and leaves its audience with more questions than answers. The DVD also features an audio commentary track by director Zoe Clarke-Williams. --Sean Axmaker

From the Back Cover

Welcome to Colby University, where the wealthy and powerful rule. Into this world step Alicia, a girl of modest means who dreams of becoming a lawyer. When she meets the beautiful, popular Hadley, Alicia quickly becomes a member of an elite clique. But she's about to learn the hard way that her new friends walk a dangerous line. A seductive thriller in the tradition of "Cruel Intentions" and "Wild Things", "New Best Friend" will have you guessing until the shocking final scenes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Movie, June 4, 2003

By 

Diaspora Chic "diaspora_chic" (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Best Friend [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Alicia, daughter of a working-class mother, had the aspirations of being a lawyer. When she met Hadley, a rich and spoiled, but neglected daughter of a wealthy man, her world is not going to be what it is. She hangs around Hadley and her friends going to partites and doing drugs, leaving her best friend from kindergarten behind. The lifestyle that Alicia enjoys isn't all that it is cracked up to be. The decadence of sex and drugs destroys her mentally and causes friction with Hadley, who in turn no longer wants to have anything to with her. However, Hadley is at fault for creating her into the person that she isn't. The rich girl gets foiled over by the former outcast. And she does what she can to keep her from the rest of them.
This was a good movie. I couldn't help but stayed glued to the television as the story unfolds to events that led to Alicia's overdose. Alicia needed someone to let her know that things were looking up for her and not to give up every time she got rejected. Hadley needed her father's emotional support but she also needed to learn to be on her own without relying on daddy's money. The other two women that hung around Hadley were just as out of control as Hadley. Taye Diggs, the investigator, does a great job. He was on the ball as he unfolds this event going into the depths of college life.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat confusing but still worth while, July 25, 2002

By 

"incrowdbrittany" (Port Huron, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Best Friend (DVD)

Although this is a grown up teen movie set for the 20 something college genera, it is still quite a good mystery flick. Throughout the film the plot manages to twist and turn just enough to throw you completely off track in regards to your opinion on "Who Done It?". Although the film does boast Dominiqe Swain as one of the title characters, don't expect her to be the lead, she does play a big part, but not as big as Mia Kirshner and Meridith Monroe.
Definately a film worth checking out if you like to have a surprise ending and like to act like Shurlock Holmes!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cut Them Some Slack - New Best Friend Rocks!, March 1, 2005

By 

Pinky the brain "Marnie" (Christchurch, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Best Friend [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As both a big fan of this movie and a film student, I feel that critics have been quick to judge this film as bad trash. This film has a sexy edge to it, that many other films in the "teen film" genre dare to exhibit. New Best Friend fullfills a fantasy for those girls who secretly desire to live dangerously and party every night, without it actually becoming a reality. The house is every girl's dream, and these girls are alluring and suavely tempting. The acting is far from terrible, and it was great to see Meredith Monroe in a more sophisticated and darker role than her role as Andie in Dawson's Creek. Dominique Swain once again puts in an A+ effort for her role as the cheeky deviant Sydney. For anyone who loved films like Tart and Cruel intentions,this is the film for you.