USA Today
"...Parker is moving..." 02/03/1995 p.4DEntertainment Weekly
"...Lush, weepy..." 02/10/1995 pp.40-1 Variety
"Boasting tour-de-force performances by its three leads....Barrymore's an absolute hoot..." 01/23/1995 New York Times
"...[The actresses are] so sharp, funny and wholehearted that this film creates an unexpected groundswell of real emotion..." 02/03/1995 p.C3 Sight and Sound
"...Actors relish this sort of thing, and the leads give strong, well-rounded, Oscar-friendly performances..." 05/01/1995 p.39 Los Angeles Times
"...The [actresses] are so spirited and funny -- so emotionally keyed into al the hearts and flowers -- that they give the movie their own kind of truth..." 02/03/1995 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...It is original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become family..." 02/03/1995 p.35 Chicago Sun Times 0 of 10
Those who know Barrymore from her adolescent headlines in the supermarket trash press may not realize that in movies like Guncrazy (1992), she has been developing into an actress of great natural zest and conviction. The difficult emotional scenes in Boys on the Side belong to Goldberg and Parker, but it is Barrymore whose spirit somehow draws them together into a family. And the movie gets a lot of comedy out of the Barrymore character's tempestuous love affair with a Tucson cop... As for the other two women, they just get stronger and stronger as the movie goes on. Goldberg so often wastes her time (in movies like Sister Act 2) that her work here is a reminder of such great past roles as The Color Purple and The Long Walk Home. It is an exercise in restraint: She is wise, grown up and calm. She never reaches for an effect, never goes for a laugh that isn't right there in her hand, and deals with her character's lesbianism in a way that can perhaps be called good manners: Yes, she is gay, but she doesn't believe in imposing her choice on others, and it is only gradually that we realize what the stillness of her heart can contain. She can also be very funny. Her take on some lesbians: "They're very emotional, they love uniforms, and don't break their hearts. Especially UPS uniforms." The Parker character is a series of revelations, some sad, some delightful;... and we get the impression the other actors want to applaud as much as the audience does. Later, she has a couple of big emotional scenes that are played on exactly the right notes. Look, for example, at the way she sees a piano that is a gift, and bites her lower lip. A tiny gesture, but the right one. The reviews for Boys on the Side will mention Fried Green Tomatoes and Thelma and Louise, because it shares their assorted themes: female bonding, unexpressed love, women on the run. But this movie is not a collection of parts from other films. It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family. - Roger Ebert
San Francisco Chronicle 0 of 10
Sometimes the most important breakthrough films are the ones that don't make a fuss, that slide things by in ways most people won't notice. Boys on the Side, a warm comedy/drama, is that kind of breakthrough. The picture takes the form of a buddy comedy and uses it to introduce elements that, in another context, would be considered controversial. For one thing, it contains what is probably the most respectful treatment of a lesbian character ever in a mainstream Hollywood film. Boys on the Side is a film about sex, AIDS and love between women -- romantic and otherwise. Yet there is nothing especially hip about the film's sensibility. It's just wonderfully humane. Everyone is treated with respect, and that includes conservative middle-aged mothers and even that much-maligned '60s singing duo, the Carpenters. As a film about women, Boys on the Side feels as authentic as Thelma and Louise, so it comes as a surprise to find that it was written and directed by men. But these are good men: screen writer Don Roos (Single White Female, Love Field) and Herbert Ross, who has made several films revolving around women characters, including The Turning Point and Steel Magnolias. ... Goldberg and Parker are extraordinary. I have always suspected Parker to be an exceptional actress, but after Boys on the Side I can say it loud and look people straight in the eye. With Goldberg, I have to admit to having had a blind spot regarding her as a dramatic actress. But if I ever had doubts, they've been erased in Boys on the Side. Her performance is so full, invested and heartfelt that there is never any doubt that Jane is completely in love, and that only her dignity and a middle-aged understanding of the world are keeping her from spilling over. - Mick LaSalle
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