For a Good Time, Call…

Directed by Jamie Travis

(R)

**

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There’s something “oddly winning” about this dirty-mouthed indie comedy, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. It’s “crudely shot and about as thin as a mediocre sitcom,” but the “central situation” proves “disarmingly funny.” Lauren Miller and Ari Graynor play frenemies whose mutual money woes inspire them first to share a Manhattan apartment, then to start a phone-sex line. But “it’s not just the matter-of-fact explicitness” of the script that feels new. A real friendship blooms, providing “a refreshing twist”on today’s guy-centric bromances, said Sara Stewart in the New York Post. Unfortunately, too many details of the story feel formulaic, from the presence of a scene-chewing Gay Best Friend to “a tearful reunion that involves running.” Though Miller co-wrote the script, the loud-mouthed Graynor “gets the lion’s share of good lines and scenes,” said Scott Bowles in USA Today. Still, most every time the movie has a chance to explore new ground for a comedy, it “recedes to safer ground.” It’s “not without its pleasures,” but it “feels like it’s going through the motions.”