New Best Friend (2002)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Zoe Clarke-Williams

Writer (WGA):

Victoria Strouse (written by)

Release Date:

12 April 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

How far would you go to fit in?

Plot:

A North Carolina sheriff investigates the near-fatal drug overdose of an underachieving college girl, and uncovers many sordid details of her life before and during her decent into drugs and debauchery.

Plot Keywords:

Investigation | Sheriff | Drug Overdose | College | North Carolina

Cast

Mia Kirshner	...	Alicia Campbell
Meredith Monroe	...	Hadley Ashton
Dominique Swain	...	Sidney Barrett
Scott Bairstow	...	Trevor
Rachel True	...	Julianne Livingston
Taye Diggs	...	Sheriff Artie Bonner
Glynnis O'Connor	...	Connie Campbell
Joanna Canton	...	Sarah
Eric Michael Cole	...	Warren
Oliver Hudson	...	Josh
Dean James	...	Max
J. Michael Hunter	...	Charlie
Edmund Kearney	...	Dean (as Edmund J. Kearney)
Don Henderson Baker	...	Haas
Shawn Michelle Cosby	...	Joanie

Also Known As:

Depraved Indifference (USA) (working title)
Mary Jane's Last Dance (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality, language and drug use.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Iceland:16 | Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Company:

FGM Entertainment

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Sydney and Alicia are talking on the bed, one of Alicia's lines doesn't match her lip movements.

Quotes:

Hadley Ashton: I'm warning you, back off Trevor or you'll be sorry!
Alicia Campbell: [sarcastic tone] Ooooo, I'm shaking.

Soundtrack:

Post Modern Sleaze

Trashy yet significantly better than average!

I would have to disagree on most of the user comments on this movie. Most insist it is a piece of trash, not worth viewing. And yes perhaps they're right about the trashy part but in my humble opinion, New Best Friend is in the same kind of league as 90210 - entertaining trash that as much as we hate to admit it, we actually find ourselves engrossed in.

Yes, the story is unoriginal and the script poor but the performances by the key actors are good enough to keep viewers interested. Mia Kirsher (Exotica, The Crow:City of Angels) delivers a stellar performance despite the bad material she was given to work with. An actress of her calibre should be choosing better parts in significantly better movies but I'm willing to forgive her for making one bad decision (but that's only because personally I didn't find New Best Friend a complete waste of my time). Meridith Monroe, Dominique Swain and Rachel True are all effective in their roles however one bad performance has to come from Taye Diggs as the officer in charge of investigating Alicia's (Kirsher) overdose which has suspicious circumstances. Diggs usually turns in fine performances but in New Best Friend he just looks bored. Perhaps that's due to the lack of good material he had to work with.

Overall I found New Best Friend to be an entertaining movie. Sure there was a lot of things wrong with it and it certainly won't go down as one of my favourite films of the year but it succeeds for what it is - great trash!