The New Guy

The New Guy (2002) is Ed Decter's teen comedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A high-school nobody decides to erase his past and rebuild himself from scratch.

Dizzy Harrison (DJ Qualls) is the skinny dork the whole school laughs at. After one mortifying meltdown too many, he gets himself expelled on purpose, spends a night in a holding cell, and takes cool lessons from an inmate named Luther (Eddie Griffin). Reborn as the mysterious "Gil," he transfers to a new school and shows up brooding, fearless and impossible to read. The act works: the girls swoon, cheerleader Danielle (Eliza Dushku) included, and yesterday's loser becomes king of the hallways overnight. Keeping the mask on, though, gets harder by the day, and his old self threatens to resurface.

This is a goofy, gleefully dumb early-2000s comedy stuffed with cameos, from skateboarder Tony Hawk to rockers Gene Simmons and Tommy Lee, plus a very young Zooey Deschanel as the hero's sister. Don't come looking for depth; it's all makeovers, lowbrow gags and Qualls' lanky underdog charm. Fans of the era's high-school comedies will have a good time. Stream The New Guy (2002) online on iFILM.