The New Guy (PG-13, 2002)

Dizzy (D.J. Qualls) is a funk-loving dork stranded at the bottom of the school pecking order with his pals (Parry Shen, Zooey Deschanel, and Jeord Mixon). After Dizzy is injured in an unlikely and deeply personal way, he decides to get expelled. His antics lead to a diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome and some stupefying medication. Eventually he's thrown in jail where he meets Luther (Eddie Griffin), the mentor he's been needing. Under Luther's tutelage, Dizzy is transformed into the punky Gil. At his new school on the other side of town, Gil spouts decade-old pseudo-Ebonic aphorisms and beat the local bully. His badboy status confirmed, he restructures the social hierarchy of the new place. Eventually, he's forced to confront the fact that Gil is just an invention, and also forced by the lame script to win the heart of the school bully's sexy girlfriend (Eliza Dushku).

The New Guy is a waste of talent. This high school epic, supposedly about one boy's path to true cool is so half-baked and uncool that it's embarrassing. It is also another case of the MPAA giving a PG-13 rating to a comedy that has material that would get an R in a drama. It is painful to see some of today's most talented young actors wasted in this dreck. They're given very little to work with in the script. The writer and director have sadly bought into the same limited mindset about popularity and conformity that they are purportedly skewering.

The most troubling aspect might be strained impressions D.J. Qualls calls upon in his quest for status. It's intrinsically funny to watch the gawkiest white guy on the planet attempt to imitate macho black posturing. But so much of it goes on for so long that posturing begins to seem a little like caricature. And it's precisely this behavior, the epitome of imitative uncool, which is supposed to secure "Gil's" status.

Studio: Columbia Tristar
Director: Ed Decter
Cast: DJ Qualls, Eddie Griffin, Eliza Dushku
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release: May 10, 2002
DVD release: August 13, 2002
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: gross humor, sexual references, and language