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Movies / On DVD / Boys on the Side
Boys on the Side

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Boys on the Side (1995)

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71 %
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Reviews Counted:31

Fresh:22

Rotten:9

Average Rating:6/10

Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: BOYS ON THE SIDE is a simultaneously funny and moving drama of self-discovery. Three very different women find themselves together at individual crossroads in their lives. When Jane (Whoopi... BOYS ON THE SIDE is a simultaneously funny and moving drama of self-discovery. Three very different women find themselves together at individual crossroads in their lives. When Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) a street-smart New York lesbian, answers an ad to drive across the country, she meets Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), a prim and proper real-estate agent desperate to flee the city. The seemingly opposite pair embarks on a road trip together, concealing truths about one another: Robin is suffering from AIDS in silence, and Jane hides her homosexuality. Along the way they stop in Pittsburgh to visit Jane's friend Holly (Drew Barrymore). Holly is involved in an abusive relationship with her junkie boyfriend Nick, and when Jane attempts to take Holly with her, Nick violently intervenes. When Robin hears all the commotion, she miraculously saves the day by calming Nick down, then binding him to a chair while Holly packs her bags. However, as the three women travel west, Jane spies Nick's photograph in a newspaper--in an obituary. The trio decides to continue the journey, finding strength in one another's friendship. Director Herb Ross's touching film examines the bonds these women form as they endure heartache and love together in spite of their differences. [More]

Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Mary-Louise Parker, James Remar

Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Mary-Louise Parker, James Remar, Billy Wirth, Matthew McConaughey, Anita Gillette, Dennis Boutsikaris, Estelle Parsons, Stephen Gevedon, Gedde Watanabe, Jon Seda, Aaron Lustig, Terri White

Director: Herbert Ross

Director: Herbert Ross
Producer: Arnon Milchan, Steven Reuther
Screenwriter: Don Roos
Composer: David Newman

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 27, 1999

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Boys on the Side

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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It's decent mass consumption entertainment, but there's not much in the way of meat.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Touching drama about some idiosyncratic people who must learn how to help and be helped by those who cherish them.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
08/30/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There are some poignant moments that work, and an awful lot of attempts that fail.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

The entire film feels like the result of a market study.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
01/01/00
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An engagingly acted, likable, fried green Thelma & Louise.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rita Kempley
Rita Kempley
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Written with both heart and humor, it's an amazing hybrid of styles you would never think could work so well together.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

Goldberg and Parker are extraordinary.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The three women are so spirited and funny -- so emotionally keyed into all the hearts and flowers -- that they give the movie their own kind of truth.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/13/01
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

That rare creation, an emotional film that actually takes the time to develop characters, although it goes a bit overboard in its third act.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Scott Renshaw
Scott Renshaw
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Here he has Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore and James Remar to distract us from the depths to which Ross habitually stoops in the never-ending quest to reacquaint an audience with its cheapest emotions.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
Barbara Shulgasser
Barbara Shulgasser
San Francisco Examiner

Roos and Ross (and I promise never to put those names together again) are so busy jerking the audience from wacky to teary, and back again, they seem blithely unaware of the howling melodrama of it all.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's not much ... development.

Full Review Source: Cinematter | comment Comment
01/01/00
Madeleine Williams
Madeleine Williams
Cinematter

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Steve Davis
Steve Davis
Austin Chronicle

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/20/03
Monica Hayde
Monica Hayde
Palo Alto Weekly

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Mark R. Leeper
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out

A bit soapy, yes, but it's high quality soap.

comment Comment
05/12/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

makes me cry every time

comment Comment
12/16/03
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
 
 
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