Katie Steele, played by Ari Graynor, starts a phone sex line with frenemy turned best friend Lauren Powell, who is played by Lauren Miller. (Courtesy of Focus Features)
From the 14th to the 17th century, Earth experienced a massive reinvestment (both fiscally and mentally) in the arts that, and in return, sparked some of history’s greatest minds and artists.
We called it the Renaissance.
Today, the term is being used to describe the same sort of reinvestment into one of film’s most neglected drama – the female comedy.
What started with the massive success of last summer’s Bridesmaids has yielded formidable copycats like the soon-to-be-released Bachorlette and, most recently, For a Good Time, Call…
For a Good Tine, Call…follows two New York roommates who, to afford their fabulous Gramercy Park apartment, start a phone sex line to make ends meet.
Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller play the two seductively silly female leads, Katie and Lauren.
Graynor, who has appeared in smaller roles in films like The Sitter and What’s Your Number finally gets her breakout role in For a Good Time, Call…
Graynor runs away with her role as Katie and steals the film in the process.
Graynor’s comedic timing, mixed with the actress’ ability to be both funny and vulnerable, make Katie a character that one finds themselves both rooting for and against.
Miller, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as charming as Graynor.
Her character comes across as melancholy and glum, even after the semi-sexual revolution she experiences after starting the phone sex line.
At its core, For a Good Time, Call… is a humorous look into the complicated world of female friendships.
Director Jamie Travis crafts a visual appealing story that uses a phone sex line as a catalyst, not a story arc.
While the film’s events sometimes resemble that of a television sitcom, the movie is a summer send-off worth watching.
However, with a running time of only 86 minutes, one can’t help but to want more as the end credits roll.
For a Good Time, Call… opens at Angelika Dallas on Friday
