Boys On The Side (1995)

A struggling lesbian rock singer (Whoopi Goldberg) wants to move to L.A. She responds to an ad looking for someone to share a ride to California which was put in the paper by an uptight real estate agent (Mary Louise Parker), who's in ill health, moving to California. On their way, they stop in Pittsburgh to visit the singer's ditzy friend (Drew Barrymore), who decides to join the others on their road trip after she smashes a baseball bet onto her abusive boyfriend's skull. It is only later they discover he died from his head wounds. Directed by Herbert Ross (THE GOODBYE GIRL), this road movie sounds like a retread of THELMA AND LOUISE but it isn't. It's yet another movie about female friendships and it shouldn't work but it does, largely because of its three talented (and appealing) leading ladies. The film expresses how although we can't choose the family we're born into, we can choose the family we want as adults and they don't have to be blood kin. It's funny, it's poignant and it's smart. This glut of films in recent years with over age 65 actresses about female friendships could take a lesson from this one. The excellent supporting cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Estelle Parsons, Anita Gillette, James Remar, Amy Aquino and Gedde Watanabe.