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Riding in Cars with Boys

Riding in Cars with Boys

Drama · Comedy · 2001

In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.

Movie details

Riding in Cars with Boys

“She did everything wrong, but got everything right.”

2001 Drama · Comedy 2h 11m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.5 / 10

31.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

48 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

43 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Riding in Cars with Boys?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Penny Marshall

Written by

Morgan Ward

Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore

Beverly Donofrio

Steve Zahn

Steve Zahn

Ray Hasek

Adam Garcia

Adam Garcia

Jason

Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy

Fay Forrester

James Woods

James Woods

Leonard Donofrio

Lorraine Bracco

Lorraine Bracco

Teresa Donofrio

Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez

Shirley Perro

Court is in session

Put Riding in Cars with Boys on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.