Boys On The Side

Boys On The Side is a movie I've probably watched a dozen times since it's mid-90s release. I watched it again last weekend and enjoyed it as much as ever. I have been thinking about why I like it so much. It's not a complex story that reveals additional layers on repeated viewings and it's not an 'epic' that sweeps you along. In fact, it's the antithesis of both those sorts of movies. It starts out as a road trip...then it morphs into a courtroom drama...then veers ever so close to disease-of-the-week territory...before correcting course and becoming an unusual love story. I think that what makes it so appealing to me is the core idea of making a family out of those people around you, those people who love you but aren't your biological family. The movie shows a path away from the sense of alienation and isolation that many people feel. That's something we can all relate to.

It occurred to me while watching Boys On The Side that it has a similar theme to another girls-only flick that I've also watched quite a few times. Leaving Normal is a fairly obscure film that deserves a bigger audience. It was released in 1992 and has stuck in my mind ever since. I haven't seen it in a few years because it's hard to get hold of (from what I can gather it's still not available on DVD). It's another story of misfits who come together to make a life together. It's a love story in the same way that Boys On The Side is. Love between friends comes to mean as much as the love between 'real' family.

The triumph of love - any sort of love - over disillusionment and loneliness is something I find inspiring. I wish there were more movies like Boys On The Side and Leaving Normal. And I wish there were movies like these that were about men finding some sort of platonic solace in the company of each other. Perhaps there are and I just don't know about them...