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The New Guy

The New Guy

Comedy · 2002

Nerdy high school senior Dizzy Harrison has finally gotten lucky -- after purposely getting expelled, he takes lessons in 'badass cool' from a convict and enrolls at a new school. But can he keep up the ruse?

Movie details

The New Guy

“A zero will rise.”

2002 Comedy 1h 28m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.8 / 10

38.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

7 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

24 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Nerdy high school senior Dizzy Harrison has finally gotten lucky -- after purposely getting expelled, he takes lessons in 'badass cool' from a convict and enrolls at a new school. But can he keep up the ruse?

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The New Guy?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

St Trinian's

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Mean Girls

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Comedy · 2009

Popular high schoolers and best friends Shawn and Nick decide to ditch football camp for cheerleader camp. For the girls and for the glory.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

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Four high school students look to redefine themselves after graduation.

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Comedy · 2010

Olive, an average high school student, sees her below-the-radar existence turn around overnight once she decides to use the school's gossip grapevine to advance her social standing. Now her classmates are turning against her and the school board is becoming concerned, including her favorite teacher and the distracted guidance counselor. With the support of her hilariously idiosyncratic parents and a little help from a long-time crush, Olive attempts to take on her notorious new identity and crush the rumor mill once and for all.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Ed Decter

Written by

David Kendall

DJ Qualls

DJ Qualls

Dizzy Harrison / Gil Harris

Eliza Dushku

Eliza Dushku

Danielle

Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel

Nora

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett

Bear Harrison

Jerod Mixon

Jerod Mixon

Kirk

Illeana Douglas

Illeana Douglas

Kiki Pierce

Parry Shen

Parry Shen

Glen

Court is in session

Put The New Guy on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.