New Best Friend

This boring, unfocused twist on the dangerous, in-crowd, B-movie archetype stars innocent yet mysterious Mia Kirshner (Exotica, Not Another Teen Movie) as an insecure outcast at an upscale North Carolina college who falls into a drug-induced coma a few weeks after hooking up with the campus snob squad of well-heeled sexpots. Inconsistently narrated from no particular point of view, the plot unfolds in flashback as the town's sheriff (the talented but badly miscast Taye Diggs) conducts a laughably inept investigation. Uniformly vague characters and performances gallop off in so many directions at once that it feels as if director Zoe Clarke-Williams wasn't even awake for most of the shoot. The editing is even worse, as the film plays as if the scenes were shuffled into some random order along the way to the flimsiest of finales, built around a seemingly arbitrary conclusion reached by the incompetent sheriff. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary from director Zoe Clarke-Williams and filmographies of Clarke-Williams and cast members Kirshner, Diggs, Monroe and Swain. Bottom line: A skimpy extras package for a slight film.] (R. Blackwelder)