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.
Boys on the Side (1995)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Boys on the Side
Written with both heart and humor, it's an amazing hybrid of styles you would never think could work so well together.
There are some poignant moments that work, and an awful lot of attempts that fail.
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.
It's decent mass consumption entertainment, but there's not much in the way of meat.
It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family.
That rare creation, an emotional film that actually takes the time to develop characters, although it goes a bit overboard in its third act.
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