NEWGUY

WEDNESDAY 5 NOVEMBER AT MIDDAY UGC HAYMARKET SCREEN 3

Country USA Running Time 85 mins Format DV Dir/S'play Bilge Ebiri Prods Pavlina Hatoupis, Gary Giambalvo, Ebiri DoP Branan Edgens, Chuck Moss Cast Kelly Miller, Scott Janes, Johnny Ray Print Source Siete Machos Films E ebiri@att.net

Is there anyone out there who vowed never to get a desk job - and did? Have you ever been stuck in a dead end job and wondered if you would ever escape? New Guy is an assured, confident and slick debut which describes exactly that. Gregg's first day at the office starts off well enough. Except one colleague spends all day standing beside the fax machine, another spends countless minutes talking to his girl, and Gregg's predecessor, Frank, has decorated the office with post-it notes. No one particularly likes Gregg - and no one really seems to dislike him. It just seems that everything is ultra normal and that Gregg has found acceptance in his job until it is time to go home. And then Gregg begins to wonder if he will ever leave the office, or just be stuck in the most dead-end of all jobs.

Without giving away the triple-twist ending, New Guy successfully combines three very different stories: part comedy, part thriller/horror and part tragedy. In less skilled hands, this could be regarded as a recipe for failure. But Ebiri pulls it off with a panache reminiscent of Scorsese's After Hours. The performances, by New York acting scene stalwarts, are superb and engaging. Well worth a look. EG

Bilge Ebiri studied filmmaking at Yale where he met many of the collaborators on New Guy. Bilge also works as a journalist and has interviewed a huge list of entertainers including Prince, Robin Williams and Michael Stipe. He currently reviews films for New York magazine.