Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 28
  2. Negative: 1 out of 28
  1. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    First-time feature director Sanaa Hamri's virtually perfect romantic comedy is a marvelous mix of brains and heart that confronts serious questions about race and dating with sensitivity, humor and enormous sex appeal.
  2. 60
    The movie nicely captures the area around Baldwin Hills, is crisply written by Kriss Turner and portrays the upper-middle class black community seldom seen in mainstream TV and film. However, the characterizations, even the leads, rarely rise above archetypes.
  3. 38
    This is an inept and unsubtle romantic fantasy about how black people and white people don't mix.

See all 28 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
  1. 10
    Every time I see this movie I love it more. This is definitely a chick flick for black women who grew up middle to upper middle class. I loved the chemistry between the characters, the humor of two very different people falling in love who just happen to be of different races and Socio economic backgrounds. From the moment they meet to getting to know each other and experiencing new things the movie makes you laugh and think. The family dynamic reminds me of my friends and I who have only seen a ghetto/hood on television or the movies and do have brothers older and younger just like in this movie. Also the doting father and socially concious mom yep very realistic from a suburban view. There was no old 70 's or 80 's prejudicial point of views in the movie, and thank goodness there was no crazy angry black woman "Sista" mannerisms that black women haters like to use to parody black women. I wish the director would make a follow-up to this movie just to see how they did or at least get funding to do more movies like this. People who might not like this movie will have comments about the plot being unrealistic and those people I have to wonder what background experience is driving that point of view. But if you take the racial factor out of the movie, it is a really sweet love story. Unfortunately, black women today are stuck with Tyler Perry who continues to denigrate us in the pictures he makes. H Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. Laurn
    9
    really enjoyed it. covered material (racial issues from the black perspective) excellently.
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. Alyelle
    3
    Not sure what the hype is. This was a HORRIBLE movie with no sunstantive plot. What we got in the previews before he movie's the release is exactly what we got in the theatre, only the previews spared us all the LONG, DRAWN-OUT, and POINTLESS scenes that only repeated what we already gathered withing the first 10 minutes of the movie: She wants a black man, falls for a white man, finds a good black man. but realized the white man is her soul mate. SURPRISE! I love Sanaa Lathan, but I'm tired of her playing the same personality role in all the romantic comedies she does. "Alien vs. Predator" was a break for the norm for her. Unfortunately "Something New" was much more of the same, leaving her void of any real range and depth. The supporting characters were also useless-- Donald Faison and Alfre Woodard were especially disappointing. Their roles were so exaggerated and out-of-character and context that they both came across as bad actors. Surely even they didn't believe that the characters they played would actually say some of the things that were scripted for them to say! For instance, in the real world, a mother as stuck-up and bougoisie as they tried to portray Alfre Woodard's character would most likely applaud, if nor prefer, her daughter's choice to be with a white man. Surely a woman who couldn't wait to leave Africa when visiting would not be appalled by her daughter dating a white man. Moreover, a woman of Kenya's success in a white male dominated profession would not have been so uncomfortable in a coffeeshop with a white man! Surely she's taken her white clients to lunch or dinner in public! Another ridiculous scenario was when Kenya bumped into Brian at the wedding and Brian had a date with him! No high-class, educated, professional BLACK woman would have "lost it" to the extent of having an asthma attack and griping in the Rabbi's office while the wedding was going on. If we are really to believe these four women were professional black women, we have to see the discrepancy in their behavior during the wedding. I was appalled when one of them yelled out "black ashy babies" while the wedding was commencing outside! Either your charcters are classy/sophisticated, or they are ghetto-- they can't be both! The script was just too poorly written for the movie to have real substance. And, the Spike-Lee-esque camera tricks were aggravating, particularly the table scene when the four friends were talking about what they want in a man. We circled that table the entire scene-- I was dizzy! It was effective the first few seconds as each of the 4 characters spoke, but it didn't need to last that long. Furthermore, some of the scenes look like they were shot in 16mm with the same cheap bolex cameras I used my freshman year in film school! This was a low-budget movie with a low-budget outcome on the the silver screen. Save your money. Wait 'til someone else rents it on DVD and watch it with them. By the way, I was going to give this movie a 1, but I bumped my score up two points because Simon Baker gave the only outstanding, realistic, substantive performance. I'm looking forward to seeing much more of him. Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes

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