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: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 5, 2004
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000068QJR
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,889 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "New Best Friend" on IMDb

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Movie June 4, 2003

By Diaspora Chic

Format: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.

7 of 8 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

Format: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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Slick, subtle, and worth a look see August 2, 2006

By Steve Stubbs

Format:DVD

This is a movie I did not fully appreciate until after it was over and I wanted to watch it again. The premise is, poor girl Alicia goes to a rich person's school where everyone except her is amoral, meaning in plain English they like sex and drugs. But wait a minute. Who is really into sex and drugs in this movie? Who is really envious of whom? Alicia, who is supposed to be the moral poor girl, ends up in hospital due to a drug overdose. Is Hadley, who is far wealthier than Alicia, really envious of her and not the other way around? Why do we feel such intense sympathy for the comatose Alicia? And why is some of the music, especially the music that plays at the end while the credits are running, so haunting?

This film plays with your mind as you watch it and does not get caught in the process. Great acting doesn't hurt, either.

This movie critic says, check it out.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good movie June 14, 2003

By Marsha McAllister

Format:DVD

This movie has quality. There is much more unspoken than spoken that "speaks" to a girl in her 20s. I thought the movie touched on issues that many 20 + year olds are dealing with these days--bisexuality, alcoholism, recreational drug use, trying to grow up and still be daddy's girl at the same time, and most of all "how to fit in." I loved the theme of "lead, follow or get out of the way." What a smart quote for today's young woman in college or out there trying to make it on her own.

Give this movie a try, you just might like it.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great movie for a hot date! November 13, 2003

By MartyHansen

Format:DVD

A poor girl who falls in with rich girls suffers an overdose, and the local sheriff wannabe is brought in to investigate. The rich girls are young and very attractive, especially when they're partying in their spaghetti-strapped dresses. And the poor girl, played by Mia Kirschner, is no slouch in the looks department herself with her dark features and jet black hair.

Mia eventually ingratiates herself with all of the friends; smoking, drinking, and doing drugs - and sharing dark secrets - like when she and Dominique Swain discover that both of them had been molested by their fathers when they were ten-years-old, which causes them to bond by exploring each other's mouths with their tongues, pawing at each other's clothes, and then falling asleep in each other's arms soon afterwards.

Mia then uncovers that Rachel True, a gorgeous fair-skinned black girl, is bulimic; and Mia offers to help her quit when she's ready. Rachel is touched, but rather than make it with Mia, she shares a deep soul kiss with Ms. Swain to continue an on-going relationship with Dominique (who is bisexual).

Dominique is on a roll, but the only girl among her circle of friends she doesn't kiss is Meredith Monroe, who plays Hadley, the story's main character - and main suspect! Meredith looks a lot like Natasha Henstridge (`Ghosts of Mars'), so watching her is definitely easy on the eyes. The most risque thing she does in the movie, though, is get naked (from the back) with her boyfriend in bed. But her performance as a seemingly innocent and helpful best friend is excellent.

Besides Meredith, another fine appearance is made by Taye Diggs as this Southern college town's interim sheriff.... He approaches his task with sensitivity and determination, and it is through his eyes - and the flashbacks that he's told - that we get to enjoy the girls' divulged sensuality.

Taye solves the crime, and one of the girls is brought to justice. She ends up behind bars at the movie's end - while we see Dominique, asleep and naked in bed - and lying between both her own boyfriend and another girl! (Gee, I don't remember college life to be this good!)

This movie is well produced - and well paced - and Dominique (who I loved in `Lolita') is definitely fun to follow. This would be a great film to share on a really hot date. Enjoy! Read more ›