“For a Good Time, Call…” is NOT Bad Porn (Or Porn at All, of Any Quality)
The first thing I’ll say about “For a Good Time, Call…” is that it succeeded in its mission. According to creators, they wanted a “chick flick” that was more along the lines of “The Hangover,” seeing as “Bridesmaids” was so popular. Basically, women can be just as vulgarly raw as men and it’s just as hilarious; why not make bank on it?
“For a Good Time, Call…” centers around a pair of women who are friends under duress and realize that they can solve all their money woes (NYC rent anyone?) by running their own phone-sex hotline. Ari Graynor plays Katie, the typical wild-child with a secret soft side, while Lauren Miller stars as Lauren, recently dumped, whose ex kicks her out of their apartment before jetting off to a foreign country.
The film is raunchy and can appeal to both sexes, but it’ll definitely resonate with the women in the audience. There are some inside jokes about the occasionally romantic nature of female relationships that will lead to genuine tears of laughter and commiseration.
Katie and Lauren have a not-so-friendly college history thanks to their vastly differing personalities; they wouldn’t even have had any further contact had their mutual friend, Jesse (Justin Long) not thrown them together in their respective hours of need. Katie taught Lauren to embrace her inner sex kitten and Lauren made Katie see that love was worth swallowing fear for. Can they maintain a friendship when the things they value most are so different? Would they even want to, even at the risk of losing the lucrative business they built together? Their little business makes them some HUGE money and they’re flying high…until the “real” world comes knocking at the door, literally.
I really enjoyed the way female sexuality was handled in this film. It wasn’t dirty or shameful, it was just a natural part of life which is what so many films written from the male perspective tend to forget. Sometimes sex for women is great and sometimes it sucks and sometimes gross things happen and ALWAYS do we talk about it. In graphic detail. Because we’re women and these are the things we deal with that only another women will go, “oh, honey, I know EXACTLY what you mean because this one time…”. There’s such an inherent support system that exists when interacting with someone who’s been where you’ve been and learned from it. Focusing on the positives of a female friendship without skimping on the reality of what we feel and discuss? Give me more of that!
My only major complaint is that there weren’t really any brown folk in this movie. Hello, these women live and work in NYC so that doesn’t come off as accurate at all.
I have a love/hate relationship with movies these days. So please understand that when I say I wouldn’t pay full price to see this film, it’s not me saying I disliked it. Frankly, I think very few of them are worth the price of NYC admission. I was able to see this one at a screening and I’ll be honest–did I enjoy it? Yes. Incredibly. Would I pay $14 to see it? Eh, not too sure about that. But I DID enjoy it sufficiently enough to agree to paying matinee price ($7). For that, I’d actually go and see it twice! With the current state of the industry, where most films barely make me bother, consider it a win!
“For a Good Time, Call…” opens in U.S. theaters August 31st, 2012.
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