In 1995, my bestbestbest friend and I went to go see Boys On The Side together. I remember us both absolutely loving the movie, and staying up late that night to talk about how much our friendship meant and how much we loved each other, etc.

I decided to rent the DVD for a walk down memory lane. I warned Andreas that it was a chick flick, and he probably wouldn’t want to watch. But he did.

And, strangely, he liked it better than I did. At 20 years old, I was genuinely touched by the movie. It really spoke to me, and I related with Mary-Louise Parker’s character, the inhibited up-tight one. At almost 29, I found the movie unbelievably schmatzly and trite, from the oxygen mask hospital bed declarations of love all the way to the sad song with the empty wheelchair. And I certainly didn’t relate to Mary-Louise Parker’s character any more. Drew Barrymore plays, well, Drew Barrymore … which is to say a cute, spunky “free spirit” who likes daisies and flashing her boobs at people. Whoopi does the neutered sexless lesbian routine. Really, the only person who made me laugh was then-newcomer Matthew McConaughey who played the tan cop (with a Texas drawl! can you imagine a Matthew McConaughey with a drawl? Wow!!) who falls in love with pregnant Drew Barrymore.

“Boys On The Side” is proof that movie quality is all about context.