For A Good Time, Call

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Judd Apatow ushered in a tsunami of bromantic comedies featuring guys who freely love (and explicitly express that love for) their guy friends and audiences took to this trend like it was a grand re-invention of storytelling. For A Good Time, Call from director Jamie Travis (writer-director of The Saddest Boy in the World) returns the idea back to its source; namely female buddy love, because it doesn’t get any better than the classic relationship between Lucy and Ethel on I Love Lucy, right? In some ways, this Call reboots that dynamic for a new generation. Lauren (co-screenwriter Lauren Anne Miller) and Katie (Ari Graynor), college enemies who years later are forced to live together in a beautiful NYC apartment neither can afford, start up a phone sex business that takes off and creates unanticipated consequences. At its heart though, Call is about the love affair that blossoms between these two opposites who end up bringing the most out of each other and the rapport between Miller and Graynor is quite humorously palpable. Opens Sept. 21 at Esquire Theatre. (R) Grade: B+