Watch For a Good Time, Call... For Free

Simply Perfect

One of my all time favorites.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

In recent years, the direction of female comedies has taken a turn for the better. It was always believed that a comedy, featuring a mostly female cast, would only work as a buddy comedy. No one ever thought that women would ever be able to successful pull off a raunchy comedy, until Bridesmaids came along and changed all that. For A Good Time, Call... is from the same writers and producers as Bridesmaids and may even be funnier. The story begins with Lauren (Lauren Anne Miller) being dumped by her long time fiancée. On her own, Lauren can't afford the upscale apartment she's been living in, and is forced to move in with Katie, a promiscuous, pill popping OCD, who she'd only met once before, at a party, where Katie threw up on her. At first, the hostility is off the charts, but when Lauren loses her dream job, she is forced to help Katie run her business, a phone sex line. This film is not for the faint of heart, as it is very raunchy, to the point of shocking even me, someone who thinks they've seen it all. While this may seem like a great thing, the truth is, as with most single themed comedies, the longer it goes, the less funny it gets. At first, seeing the things these girls were saying and the people they were talking to was hilarious, but after an hour of this film, it just really wasn't all the funny anymore. Both the female leads are terrific and they are the reason this film works. For A Good Time, Call... is very raunchy and very funny, but it has one centralized theme and doesn't deviate from it much at all. If not for the amazing young ladies who star in it, this film would have got tiresome a lot more quickly then it did. For a good time watch this movie, it's way out there, but some parts are truly hysterical.

Lauren Powell (Lauren Miller) has money trouble and needs a roommate for an amazing Gramercy Park apartment. Her best friend Jesse (Justin Long) finds her a roommate, only they already know each other. She's Katie (Ari Graynor) and was a college frenemy. The money trouble continues and Lauren decide to join Katie in a phone sex business. Lauren Miller is probably best known for being Seth Rogen's wife which is probably unfair. She's the co-writer and star of this movie. The chemistry between the girls is pretty good. There's up and down which is what the movie is about. The movie is marginally funny. Not all the setups work out well. The chemistry helps a little.

A comedy about phone sex may not sound like a good idea, but For A Good Time, Call... manages to pull it off thanks to a good deal of humor and character development. Much of the humor here is raunchy but it works. It's not one of those dumb raunchy comedies. Some of the best bits happen when Lauren and Katie talk to their customers. One of them is Captain Jerry who's played by Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller's real-life husband. Miller plays proper young woman Lauren Powell. She was also one of the script writers, along with Katie Anne Naylon. They based the script on their real-life experiences as college roommates. Miller's performance is suitable and works well opposite Ari Graynor as Katie Steel. There's commitment from every actor involved but it's Graynor who steals every scene she's in. She has the best lines and she knows it. She plays her character like a pro. At first she doesn't seem appealing to the audience, but as the film progresses she becomes a rounded and likable personality. Although the story is set in the modern day the film still seems like one of those films from the early-1990s. It reminded me of Clerks (1994). A good script and a good setup make For A Good Time, Call... one of the better comedies of 2012. I recommend it.

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 hate each other because 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.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.