Rating: 4

It was once written, in far less enlightened times, that when a man marries, one part of his life changes, but when a woman marries, it is her whole life that is changed. Despite significant, if not total, gains in the social and economic equality department between men and women, when it comes to romance, very little has changed. At least as far as the movies go. When it comes to the dramatic or comedic arc of the vast majority of mainstream, women-centered films, the whole point is to find Mr. Right and live happily every after. It is the one and only important relationship for any right-thinking woman looking for fulfillment. A woman rejecting a man in favor of her own sense of self-worth and then not immediately falling into the arms of another around whom she can build her existence smacks of something disturbing. Dare one call it independence? FOR A GOOD TIME CALL. . . takes on that paradigm with a refreshing sense of ribald humor, and a sharply realized, refreshingly honest look at the dynamic that most real women would identify as the real defining relationship in their lives, the ones with their best friends. Make no mistake, this is a wildly funny comedy, a deeply affecting drama, and both elements are wondrously subversive.

The ladies in question are Lauren (Lauren Miller) and Katie (Ari Graynor), and both of them are facing a crisis of monumental proportions. Lauren has just been dumped by her live-in boyfriend of two years for being boring and finds herself homeless. Katie’s roomy and elegant apartment overlooking Grammercy Park has lost its rent-controlled status and she will be homeless if she can‘t find a roommate. They are brought together by a mutual friend (a delightfully fey Justin Long), who convinces the two ladies to get over a very bad first meeting 10 years ago and make the best of needing each other. They do, but with a finely wrought, barely contained, and supremely vitriolic resentment that starts with hair left on the soap and ends with Lauren’s discovery of just how it is that Katie makes her living. That would be as a phone sex operator and though Lauren, so straight-laced that she has sex with her bra on, is horrified, she’s also fascinated. She’s also just been fired from her job and with no prospects in her field, publishing, at least not for the next three months, she finds herself teaming up with Katie to turn her contract job into a business they can run themselves.

Going from resentment to buddies is a tricky business for scriptwriters, but Miller and her real-life best friend, Katie Anne Naylon, have a great instinct for finding those tiny moments of transformation that in and of themselves are minor, but build up into a genuine closeness. Starting from different places, Lauren’s had her life planned out since she was five, Katie is chaos incarnate, the two confound themselves by finding much to admire in the other. They also find a similar sense of humor, particularly when it comes to the, ahem, ins and outs of a successful phone sex operation. Graynor is larger than life with a crinkley voice that conveys emotions large and small with equal aplomb. As for Miller, she is waiflike with a core of steel and an aura of genuine and giddy surprise to discover a wild child lurking beneath the carefully poised exterior.

As the film progresses, Lauren rebounds not by finding another man, but rather by throwing herself into the start-up that will tide her over until her dream job at a publishing house opens up. The real satisfaction, though, is the emotional support from her new best friend. Katie, too, may find a surprising intimacy with one of her regulars that has nothing to do with sex, but it’s having a female friend for the first time in her life that lights her up. And this is a salient point. The ladies of the piece are neither man-haters nor lesbians. No, there is no such glib reason to justify the conventional cinematic idea that they don’t really want to center their lives around a man. And this is may be even more subversive.

There is something that makes the contrast between the fierce emotional investment of female bonding as played out against the most potent driving force of the male of the species in all its crude and descriptive glory all the more piquant. Especially since the ladies are not shocked by it, nor are they are not repelled, nor are they bored. They are delighted to earn a buck by exploiting this foible and are strictly business about it, which does not preclude being amused at times, or even moved. With cameos by Seth Rogan (Miller’s husband) and Kevin Smith as a cabbie with Naylon in as the bemused passenger, the laughs comes easily, but it’s balanced by Mark Webber as Sean, Katie’s regular customer who wants to be more, that brings an unexpected but welcome warmth to the story with a performance that makes Sean sweet instead of weird.

FOR A GOOD TIME CALL… is blessed with a director, Jamie Travis, that keeps even the silliest moments true and human. No easy thing considering that this is a film with blinged-our dildos and anti-date rape kits that include both bug spray and shape wear.

Rating: 4

It was once written, in far less enlightened times, that when a man marries, one part of his life changes, but when a woman marries, it is her whole life that is changed. Despite significant, if not total, gains in the social and economic equality department between men and women, when it comes to romance, very little has changed. At least as far as the movies go. When it comes to the dramatic or comedic arc of the vast majority of mainstream, women-centered films, the whole point is to find Mr. Right and live happily every after. It is the one and only important relationship for any right-thinking woman looking for fulfillment. A woman rejecting a man in favor of her own sense of self-worth and then not immediately falling into the arms of another around whom she can build her existence smacks of something disturbing. Dare one call it independence? FOR A GOOD TIME CALL. . . takes on that paradigm with a refreshing sense of ribald humor, and a sharply realized, refreshingly honest look at the dynamic that most real women would identify as the real defining relationship in their lives, the ones with their best friends. Make no mistake, this is a wildly funny comedy, a deeply affecting drama, and both elements are wondrously subversive.

The ladies in question are Lauren (Lauren Miller) and Katie (Ari Graynor), and both of them are facing a crisis of monumental proportions. Lauren has just been dumped by her live-in boyfriend of two years for being boring and finds herself homeless. Katie’s roomy and elegant apartment overlooking Grammercy Park has lost its rent-controlled status and she will be homeless if she can‘t find a roommate. They are brought together by a mutual friend (a delightfully fey Justin Long), who convinces the two ladies to get over a very bad first meeting 10 years ago and make the best of needing each other. They do, but with a finely wrought, barely contained, and supremely vitriolic resentment that starts with hair left on the soap and ends with Lauren’s discovery of just how it is that Katie makes her living. That would be as a phone sex operator and though Lauren, so straight-laced that she has sex with her bra on, is horrified, she’s also fascinated. She’s also just been fired from her job and with no prospects in her field, publishing, at least not for the next three months, she finds herself teaming up with Katie to turn her contract job into a business they can run themselves.

Going from resentment to buddies is a tricky business for scriptwriters, but Miller and her real-life best friend, Katie Anne Naylon, have a great instinct for finding those tiny moments of transformation that in and of themselves are minor, but build up into a genuine closeness. Starting from different places, Lauren’s had her life planned out since she was five, Katie is chaos incarnate, the two confound themselves by finding much to admire in the other. They also find a similar sense of humor, particularly when it comes to the, ahem, ins and outs of a successful phone sex operation. Graynor is larger than life with a crinkley voice that conveys emotions large and small with equal aplomb. As for Miller, she is waiflike with a core of steel and an aura of genuine and giddy surprise to discover a wild child lurking beneath the carefully poised exterior.

As the film progresses, Lauren rebounds not by finding another man, but rather by throwing herself into the start-up that will tide her over until her dream job at a publishing house opens up. The real satisfaction, though, is the emotional support from her new best friend. Katie, too, may find a surprising intimacy with one of her regulars that has nothing to do with sex, but it’s having a female friend for the first time in her life that lights her up. And this is a salient point. The ladies of the piece are neither man-haters nor lesbians. No, there is no such glib reason to justify the conventional cinematic idea that they don’t really want to center their lives around a man. And this is may be even more subversive.

There is something that makes the contrast between the fierce emotional investment of female bonding as played out against the most potent driving force of the male of the species in all its crude and descriptive glory all the more piquant. Especially since the ladies are not shocked by it, nor are they are not repelled, nor are they bored. They are delighted to earn a buck by exploiting this foible and are strictly business about it, which does not preclude being amused at times, or even moved. With cameos by Seth Rogan (Miller’s husband) and Kevin Smith as a cabbie with Naylon in as the bemused passenger, the laughs comes easily, but it’s balanced by Mark Webber as Sean, Katie’s regular customer who wants to be more, that brings an unexpected but welcome warmth to the story with a performance that makes Sean sweet instead of weird.

FOR A GOOD TIME CALL… is blessed with a director, Jamie Travis, that keeps even the silliest moments true and human. No easy thing considering that this is a film with blinged-our dildos and anti-date rape kits that include both bug spray and shape wear.