Boys on the Side

Boys on the Side follows three women whose lives become intertwined on a road trip. Jane, a nightclub singer in New York, has lost both her job and her girlfriend when she answers an ad from Robin, a real estate agent planning to drive to the West Coast. The two stop in Pittsburgh to collect Jane's friend Holly, who is leaving an abusive relationship, and the mismatched trio continues on together. Differing in temperament and background, they gradually come to rely on one another, though each is carrying troubles that will test the bond they form. The film was directed by Herbert Ross, the thirteenth of the thirteen features he made, arriving after Undercover Blues in 1993. Don Roos wrote the screenplay, and Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore play Jane, Robin and Holly, with Matthew McConaughey, James Remar and Billy Wirth among a credited cast of fifty-four.

Released in February 1995, the film mixes comedy and drama across a 115-minute running time and was made through Warner Bros. Pictures with Regency Enterprises and others, on a budget of about 21 million dollars. Its worldwide gross of roughly 23 million dollars was modest against that cost. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 16,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4 out of 10 from roughly 272 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7 out of 10 from 112 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores on both platforms.