This movie is somewhat entertaining, yet very odd. I don’t know quite what to make of it – or who to recommend it to. Adult women mostly (18+). The men in the audience chuckled on cue, but squirmed a lot too – because the majority of the men in this chick-bonding dramedy are either jerks, or jerking off. And I mean that quite literally. For a Good Time, Call… is like a raunchy buddy-movie bromance turned on its head with a dash of Sex and the City and Bridesmaids thrown in for good measure. So what’s it about? Just what the title would suggest…

Phone sex. And love. And friendship. And female bonding that gets a bit weird. The movie stars Lauren Miller as Lauren Powell, a reserved over-achiever who needs to find a new place to live when her boyfriend dumps her and her job implodes. Ari Graynor plays the cinematic side-kick Katie Steele, a seemingly loose free-spirit type who’s struggling to make ends meet when rent control ends on her dearly-departed Grandma’s swank New York City apartment. To avoid losing her cool digs, Katie agrees to take Lauren on as a roommate for the summer. The two share a bit of history stemming from a rather gross incident that occurred during their college days. But hey, animosity is a small price to pay when you’re dealing with the NYC real estate market.

Alas, this odd couple eventually finds common ground – as roomies, and then as business partners in a phone-sex operation that they run out of the apartment. The calls range from totally gross to grossly funny to downright hilarious (especially a call from a women’s prison). Expect lots of groans and grunts and shots from the waist up, with little doubt of what’s going on from the waist down. Get the picture? For a good time, call 1-xxx-Mm-Hmmm. You’re bound to get an earful. Anyway… as the gals’ business takes off, their growing friendship is left, well, hanging in the balance.

For a Good Time, Call… is no Bridesmaids. But it does have a certain crude charm about it. So while I doubt it will gain any mainstream traction, it may find a niche audience, if not now, then as a rental down the line.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *