| Lauren (Lauren Miller) and Katie (Ari Graynor) have a mutual friend (Justin Long), but they hate each other. A humorous flashback scene is included to help explain their hatred. Essentially, they’re opposites. Lauren lives the settled conservative life with her perfect, boring boyfriend; Katie is an adventurous, flamboyant sex phone operator. And now their current situations force them to become roommates. | | 2012
Directed by: Jamie Travis
Screenplay by: Lauren Miller, Katie Anne Naylon
Starring: Lauren Miller, Ari Graynor, and Justin Long
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Our ticking clock of the three-month lease sets a good, quick pace for the adventures and relationships the girls get themselves into. Lauren’s sudden unemployment coupled with the good head on her shoulders sparks her idea to help Katie launch her own sex phone hotline. Cut-out the middle man and take more of the profits.
A smart move the film made was to have their business be successful right off the bat. That’s because the film isn’t about the phone sex hotline business but rather Lauren and Katie’s friendship. Written by girls, starring girls, about girls and for girls. Earlier this summer, the male stripper movie “Magic Mike” turned into a rather nice surprise as it became a quarter-life crisis dramedy. And now the crass and crude sex comedy “For a Good Time, Call…” is actually a cute and sweet female buddy film.
While the dialogue is extreme, it is surprisingly fairly well written. It’s all in context, and the vulgar and coarse sex jokes fit in extremely well with the plot. The final scene, the climax if you will, is an excellent example of keeping the sex-addled jokes funny and completely in context of the story.
A certain indie filmmaker shows up for one cameo scene where self-servicing has never been as funny. The other well-documented cameo with Seth Rogen isn’t nearly as funny because it is also supposed to serve as plot advancement. Plot advancement is limited as it is very predictable and the jokes are very one-note, but it’s still funny.
“For a Good Time, Call…” is honest in what it claims to be, and despite an unresolved storyline, we’re cheering for Lauren and Katie by the end because of the actors and how they have connected them to us. Lauren is beautiful and sympathetic; Katie is more complex and is gorgeously displaying one of the sexiest figures to grace the screen.
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