Latest film about phone sex creates awkward experience
There are two age groups that will enjoy “For a Good Time, Call…” — recently pubescent boys and middle aged-women, and yes — the movie is that bad.
Always pouting and perpetually whiny Lauren (Lauren Miller) moves in with loud and vulgar Katie (Ari Graynor), — strangers except for a mutual acquaintance Jesse (Justin Long) — because neither can afford separate rents in New York City.
From there, viewers learn the two girls were “frenemies” in college. This little tidbit is explained via a montage including one character urinating in a 7-Eleven Big Gulp sized-cup and dousing the other.
Now that the rivals are housed in their apartment 10 years later, Lauren quickly learns that Katie makes her money through operating a phone-sex line and decides to join her in an effort to make ends meet.
While the movie touts for a humorous “good time,” it’s really left with little less than a dial tone.
Among many errors present in “For a Good Time, Call…,” the acting takes precedence.
Powell appears capable of two tones of voice and one facial expression, none of which are remotely appealing and on the brash, allegedly playful end, Graynor is a blander and inferior version of Kate Hudson.
At times, the actual calls seem like terrible line readings for someone’s first soft-core porn production.
This sad caveat leads to another point that borders on heinous. This film features Seth Rogen and Kevin Smith involved in disgustingly grotesque sessions of phone coitus.
Director Jamie Travis should be sent back to film school for even thinking this was a sound cinematic idea.
The angle is that the repetitive jokes — notably the incalculable number of uses of the word “dildo” — are supposed to somehow be sweet and hold onto some sort of perverse innocence.
Instead, “For a Good Time, Call…” seems to carry an idea that may force the viewer to feel very awkward, boring and not overly sexual.
As the movie progresses, it can also make the viewer feel like something is horribly wrong with them and thus, they are undeserving of actual love.
There are numerous puns one could make about hanging up or dropping the call when advising someone not to see this 86-minute travesty of a movie, but it’s best to be blunt.
“For a Good Time, Call…” is bad and it may very well make the viewer feel the same or at the very least, really in need of a shower.
