Boys on the Side
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Tags: whoopi womens music touching feminist arizona drama matthew mcconaughey james remar tear jerker indigo girls wake up calls magic carpet ride classic rock folk rock favorite soundtracks great movie get the zantac three days of the condor addictive film moments herbert ross
Average Rating 
Boys on the SideThis female-bonding film takes your basic soap opera and twists it inside out. Although director Herbert Ross draws superb performances from his actresses, he occasionally wallows in that maudlin, Hollywood melodrama in which close-ups are crucial. Remember, this is the man who directed Steel Magnolias. However, Ross also does something you don’t expect: he makes you fall in love with his characters. Whoopi Goldberg is a down-on-her luck singer who hopes to start over in Los Angeles. Mary-Louise Parker is the realtor whose life is going nowhere. After Goldberg answers Parker’s ad in the paper for a companion to drive to LA, these two completely different women grudgingly find themselves emotionally involved. Drew Barrymore enters the picture on the first leg of the trip when Goldberg insists on visiting her. After battling with her drug-dealing boyfriend, the flighty, sexy Barrymore throws in with them. During their trek west, the women learn to take life as it lands on them while recognizing true friendship. The film is enlightened in that it accepts the complications and blurred family ties of the ’90s. At the heart of the story is the realization that people can expand past expected boundaries. The movie gels in other areas as well. The all-female soundtrack is powerful and works to underscore, not overpower, certain scenes. The same can be said of the supporting cast, specifically Anita Gillette and James Remar. –Rochelle O’Gorman
- amazon.com Sales Rank: #20813 in DVD
- ABIS_DVD
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excellent movie in excellent condition by Sammie Ferrell 
I’m always loved this movie! I saw it the first time many years ago and I am still empressed with the quality of work and the how this subject matter was handled. The stars really were well chosen and each scene llicited some emotion which is always a real indicator of the quality of the performances. Powerful!!!
You could have been Donna Reid in another life! by Mary E. Clarneau 
Excellent movie is all I can say. The movie opens with Whoopi Goldberg as a musician in a club with not a lot of appreciation. When a member of her band realizes the club doesnt want them to perform there anymore, she realizes she needs a different plan. With her stubborn humor and her way or the highway attitude, she goes it alone. She answers an ad by Mary Louise Parker to drive cross country to California where both women plan to start a different existence, for very different reasons. Along the way, Whoopi Goldberg wants to check in on her friend Drew Barrymore, who is being abused by her no good drug dealing and using boyfriend.
Surprises along the way make you bond with all of the characters for different reasons. Robin (Mary Louise Parker) is likeable for the same reason that Charlotte was likeable for sex and the city. She is a perfectionist, everything needs a plan, and she has high hopes for the future. Holly (Drew Barrymore) is very flirtatious and young and sexy in her prime. While she wallows for her boyfriend that she left behind, she realizes what else life has in store for her. Whoopi Goldberg (Jane) is kind of like the parental unit that holds it all together. Amongst a tragedy all of the women witness, they form a bond that is stronger than any relationship they have ever formed with a man.
Great movie, a chick flick on certain terms, but not the expected. Definitly a must see.
“I am not going over a cliff for you two” by K. Stuckey
So says gruff Jane at the start of the road trip, but by the end you get the feeling that she would do it. This movie is about three women and their friendship, love, betrayal, joy, heartache, survival, and life. It is a drama with some lighter moments, like when Holly’s baby is born (with dark skin) and Abe looks over at Jane. Matthew McConaughey plays super-dimwitted cop Abe Lincoln (haha). Robin provides most of the drama, she has a lot of skeletons in her closet but finds happiness in the end. Mary-Louise Parker, Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Barrymore are all stellar, this is one of my all-time favorites.
A guilty pleasure for me, always end up watching this by K. Corn 
I think this film qualifies primarily as a “chick flick”, at least according to every man who has ever watched this with me. Maybe there are some of you guys out there reading this who’ll disagree. Feel free to chime in, preferably in the comments section.
This is one of my favorite films but it is the kind of film that is a guilty pleasure. I can’t seem to avoid watching it when I catch it on television but I am always left wondering WHY I find it so addictive.
Is it because of Mary Louise Parker, an actress some can’t stand but who I find to be both quirky and charming, with her performances in Fried Green Tomatoes, Angels in America and this film (Boys on the Side)? Looking as frail as she often does, with a face that isn’t classically beautiful, she is a walking poster for someone needing help although she is spunky and stubborn enough to not seem totally pathetic?
But I don’t think that is the whole reason I’m drawn to this film. Perhaps it is it the wild series of events, however improbable, that get me to both laugh, mostly at Drew Barrymore who can wring the comedy out of every moment, however sad.
There are moments in this film that also make me teary (won’t say why, no spoilers here). Drew Barrymore is just so irreverent when it comes to her very disorganized, chaotic life and her romantic issues. Not surprisingly, she doesn’t just skirt the law, she practically raises her shirt (as she did on David Letterman) and displays her assets to the world.
Whoopie Goldberg is in fine form, too, generally unflappable and adding some great heart to this film, the main nurturer and caretaker of the group. Anyway, this movie always hooks me, like some fish destined for dinner.
P.S. On a totally unrelated note, I find the closing scene of Three Days of the Condor, with Max Von Sydow, to be just as addictive. “It will happen like this…” he says, almost as though he were reciting poetry and them speaks so softly of a terrible day to come, in the most soothing and practical tones imaginable. He has to be among the most intriguing killers in movie history.
Boys left on the side of the road to rot like some old high line pole by C. CRADDOCK
Boys on the Side tantalizes with an intriguing cast and concept. Though you might get to see a little bit of what Letterman saw on his birthday, mostly the movie doesn’t deliver.
What you do get is kind of a female buddy/road picture that morphs into an AIDS picture. It takes that and the other serious issue of domestic violence, but doesn’t really handle either one well. Still, there are some surprising and unexpected moments that do work, and it is hard not to like Drew Barrymore, even if the movie is not so great. When BOTS gets all serious, it really bogs down. Robin (Mary-Louise Parker) speaks in such a low whisper that you can’t even hear what she is saying. Hasn’t she ever heard of a stage whisper? Everything gets much too serious. In the film’s beginning Robin really did a great job of negotiating between Holly Pulchik (Drew Barrymore) and her drug dealing boyfriend, Nick, (Billy Wirth). It was a surprising scene, a positive take on Real Estate agents, and Mary-Louise really closed the deal. But like an agent who closes a deal and then lets it fester in escrow and won’t return your calls, the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to the promise of the beginning.
Jane Deluca (Whoopi Goldberg) is a rock singer and in the opening she sings Piece of My Heart. I like her version better than Faith Hill’s because she at least had heard the original by Janis Joplin and was striving for a similar effect, unlike Faith who hadn’t heard it and didn’t care.
There is another scene where Jane gets a piano and uses it to serenade Robin with Superstar, the Leon Russell song that was a hit for Karen Carpenter. Whoopi does it very well, not technically, as it is rather fragile, but all the more heartfelt for being so. It is touching because earlier Robin confessed to singing Carpenters songs and was met with a cynical rolling of the eyes. It reminded me of where Whitney Houston sang I Will Always Love You to Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard after having heard the original Dolly Parton version on a juke box in a country western bar.
Drew Barrymore is not beautiful but she is cute as a button and her winning personality warms the cockles of my heart. I hear she is heading up a new project about roller derby girls, and has already gotten loads of talent on board.
Whoopi is now on The View, and is really a diplomat. Unlike Rosie or even the Whoopi of recent past, she is very respectful of others views and perspectives. What happened? She is kind of the buffer zone now. Whoopi cushion?
Mary-Louise Parker was just in the smash hit, Sex in the City. Wait, that was Sarah Jessica Parker. Never mind.
The movie made me think of a million things, but if I followed all the tangents to their illogical conclusions, we’ll be here all week. Or I will, as you will have clicked on another link long ago.
10 Films Featuring Whoopi, Drew, and Mary-Louise
Girl, Interrupted (1999) …. Valerie Owens, RN was portrayed by Whoopi.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) …. Delilah Abraham was Whoopi.
Ghost (1990) …. Oda Mae Brown was a role that won an Oscar for Whoopi.
The Color Purple (1985) …. Celie Johnson was also played by Whoopi, and she was nominated for an Oscar for her leading role.
Naked in New York (1993) …. Joanne White was played by Mary-Louise, and Whoopi was Tragedy Mask on Theater Wall.
Fried Green Tomatoes (Widescreen Collector’s Edition) (1991) …. Ruth Jamison was played by Mary-Louise Parker.
Charlie’s Angels (Special Edition) (2000) …. Dylan Sanders was played by Drew. Very bad, but watchable if only for Drew and Lucy Liu. Ditto squared for Full Throttle.
Riding in Cars with Boys (Special Edition) (2001) …. Beverly Donofrio was Drew. How about Riding in Cars with Boys on the Side?
Poison Ivy (1992) …. Ivy as played by Drew was really poison, but HOT poison.
The Wedding Singer - Totally Awesome Edition (1998) …. Julia was Drew and Adam Sandler was the Wedding Singer. Totally awesome chemistry. Don’t like Sandler’s comedy style but here it was totally awesome, the exception to the fool.
One last quote, Robin and Holly discussing the folly of gays falling for straights and Jane’s lost, last love:
Robin: But this person who dumped her, she was gay, right?
Holly: Yeah, but even with gay girls there are no guarantees. They’re very emotional. That’s about all I know. They love uniforms and don’t break their hearts.
Robin: Uniforms?
Holly: Oh, yeah, all kinds. Especially UPS.
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