For a Good Time, Call...

Jamie Travis

BY Peter MarrackPublished Aug 30, 2012

For a Good Time, Call..., the feature debut from Toronto, ON-based filmmaker Jamie Travis, was swiftly nabbed at this year's Sundance Festival and is essentially a "chick flick" written and directed from the perspective of the "chick." It was co-written (alongside Katie Ann Naylon) by co-star Lauren Miller, who, besides being a competent actress, is the wife of Seth Rogan. Remember in Entourage when Turtle was dying to know what kind of chick would sleep with Seth Rogan. Well, it seems Lauren Miller would, and does.

Miller, with her devilish blue eyes and immaculate white teeth, plays a character by the same name, Lauren, who at the start of the film breaks up with her beaux, the superbly douchebag-ish Charlie (James Wolk). Charlie immediately departs for Italy, where he's bound to do something boring, while Lauren is coerced and coached by her gay friend, Jesse (the amazing as usual Justin Long), to move in with a frenemy from college, Katie Steel (Ari Graynor).

Katie is a nail artist by day and phone sex worker by night, while Lauren is an aspiring literary editor, which means they clash immediately. Lauren prides herself on "moving up," while Katie is quite content on the ground floor – that is, socio-politically-speaking. What brings "the two bitches" together, however, is their adoration for Katie's Gramercy Park apartment, which she inherited from her grandma. The only problem is Katie can no longer afford it and Lauren, upon moving into Baba's old room, gets fired from her job. So the two girls do the only thing they can do to satiate their materialistic needs: sell sex. Which in today's world of pseudo-communication (to steal the words right out of Hank Moody's mouth) means administering "phanal": phone anal.

For a Good Time, Call..., though hardly satisfying the interests of aspiring anarchists, appeals to a broad range of audiences. There is enough girl talk, Breakfast at Tiffany's architecture, cute outfits and even a brief cameo by Mother's Cupcakes to satisfy the female demographic. While there is also enough skin, comic relief (via appearances by Seth Rogan, Kevin Smith and Don McManus) and orgasmic grunts to placate the present descendants of Sahelanthropus tchadensis.
(Alliance)

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