For a Good Time Call (2012)

"For a Good Time Call" now on iTunes is a really good movie. Roger Ebert (and some others), I don’t know what you are talking about. 

Yes, it’s about phone sex and it would be easy to say that it just follows the trend of talking about sex as much and as crudely as possible in today’s romantic comedies (such as "Wedding Crashers," "Bridesmaids," Judd Apatow movies, etc.). However, I think it’s done better than any of those movies.

Justin Long is hilarious as a gay friend Jesse who brings two women, Lauren and Katie together because they both need a roommate in New York. He tells Lauren, “You’re my favorite girl…you’re like a Subway gift card.” As he’s selling Lauren the bedroom, he states while skipping around, “This is a bedroom, or is it? Or is it a dance studio? I don’t know. There’s so much space here…The windows with the light coming in, it’s like living on the sun.” Then he sits the two women on the couch and states, “You guys can take this place from nursing home to let’s nurse some cocktails at home, right?”—and that’s just some of his lines from one scene.

The flashback to the nineties sums up the two women’s differences in two seconds-- one girl is listening to Lisa Loeb and mentioning watching "Felicity" while the other one looks like Brittany Spears in her first video wearing a short red pleated skirt.

One of my favorite parts would be when one roommate is going on a first date with one of the sex-phone callers (Max Webber!) and the other roommate puts together a “date rape totebag” for her with bug spray because she couldn’t find mace or pepper spray.

The script is clever—I’d definitely be proud if I wrote it. Being able to talk about sex lets both characters experience the real thing better (one in the future probably), so it’s not portrayed as degrading in this movie, it’s liberating. Of course, you’d have to willingly suspend your belief there—but once you do, you’ll have a lot of fun. Nia Vardalos, Seth Rogen, and Kevin Smith all have cameos.  Of course, I’m usually so happy to see any movie that takes place in New York City—New York City is my favorite character in a movie—so I was happy from the first establishing shot.

The two women give really good performances, Ari Graynor in one-piece jumpsuits (weird) and Lauren Miller in a striped puffy dress like the Dior one Jean Seberg wore in Breathless. Ari Graynor kind of reminds me of Goldie Hawn and Lauren Miller is like…an almost Parker Posey, maybe? Both were refreshing. The Guardian called it “Nine to Five with dildos”—ha!

Flight (2012)

Saw the movie "Flight" last night. I still think "Clean and Sober" with Michael Keaton is the best movie on alcoholism--it covers sponsors, writing a fourth step inventory, codependency, needing to feel needed, and making amends.

Denzel Washington, however, as Whip Whitaker was awesome--Oscar-worthy awesome, especially when he's making himself a screwdriver with one hand on the side and addressing airline passengers at the same time.

Both movies cover AA, all the lying that goes on, how you can be really verbally vicious to someone you love, beg others to cover up for you, and how when a drunk passes out on the floor, sometimes all you can do is cover him/her with a blanket and tilt his/her head so they don't choke on vomit.

 I love the scene of smokers meeting in the stairway of the hospital--apparently that was the scene that made Robert Zemeckis want to do the film-- and John Goodman really steals two scenes as well.

Two Rolling Stones song-driven slow motion shots may make you think you're in a Scorsese movie, but only for a few seconds. Denzel is given way more dignity than characters Deniro plays.