One of My Favorite Movies: 'Boys on the Side'

This will be my first post highlighting my long list of favorite movies. I'd thought I'd start with one I first encountered in the last year. Released in 1995, Boys on the Side stars Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore. Goldberg is an outspoken lesbian lounge singer, Parker is a neurotic real estate agent and Barrymore is a free spirit open to anything life has to throw at her. As you can probably tell, this is a movie about life; movies of which I have a HUGE soft spot for. My outlook on it is that life happens, whether or not we want it too, and there are little movies that portray this happening in an effective way. Boys on the Side nails that in every way. Not to mention it co-stars Matthew McConaughey as a police officer craftily named Abe Lincoln. 

Whoopi Goldberg, who happens to be one of my favorite actresses, definitely has those hilarious moments that we all know. But she also mixes in an effective blend of dramatic emotion that makes her character, Jane De Luca, seem loveable and hilarious. But Parker's character, Robin Nickerson, is that uptight woman who we all can sort of relate to in some way. She harbours a big secret that becomes a focal point of the storyline, and along the way she learns the importance of letting the little things go and opening up to living life to its fullest. Barrymore's character, Holly Pulchik (pool-chick), is a naive young women who just hops onto any ride that will take her someplace new. All these seemingly different women play out the different stages of life, together in a group, and you fall in love with all of them along the way. If you haven't already seen Boys on the Side, I strongly recommend it. You won't regret it.