How much fun can sex be without actually doing the act? A helluva lot as Katie and Lauren find out in this deliciously potty-mouthed comedy when there is rent to pay and no decent jobs available for two nice well-educated girls. They were bitter enemies at College but years later and a drastic change in both their circumstances force them to let the past go and become roommates.
Lauren’s long-standing boyfriend calmly announced one morning that their sex life was boring and so he was taking a job in Italy and she would have to move out of his apartment. Katie meanwhile had inherited a fabulous spacious Gramercy Park apartment in NY but she is about to face eviction after the rent is hiked. Their gay mutual best friend Jesse reluctantly brings the two together, and it is he who brokers the initial peace.
Lauren is laid off from her job almost the moment she moves in, and coming back from an interview one day she catches Katie having phone sex with a ‘gentlemen caller’. Lauren is not so much shocked at the discovery of how her roommate tries to pay her share of the rent, but she is horrified that the phone service that Katie works for, keeps almost all the money, and pays her such a tiny percentage. Lauren’s business acumen kicks in and she soon persuades Katie that they should go into business and set up their own Phone line. At first the irrepressible outgoing Katie takes all the calls, and shy Lauren remains behind the scenes, until one day she cannot resist the temptation to start talking dirty herself.
It’s a gloriously hilarious movie that shows that raunchy girls can be really funny. I never warmed to last year’s mega hit ‘Bridesmaids’ but it does seemed to have paved the way for this new genre of refreshingly in-your-face girls talking about sex, and loving it films. It makes such a welcome change from all those smutty male comedies where women just serve as the butt of their jokes.
Despite the subject matter there is almost an old-fashioned sitcom feel to these bright single girls sharing everything as flatmates who fast become best friends (the hint about possible lesbian attraction was one of the few missteps of this wee story). Without too many spoilers let me just say that the girls are less experienced about life sans a phone than they pretend, and even good girls playing bad can find their own good man too.
The chemistry between the two actors Lauren Anne Miller and Ari Gaynor was exceptional good. Miss Miller (also Mrs Seth Rogan) co-wrote the script, and I’m not sure if it was way she generously wrote the part of Katie for Ms Gaynor as it gave her a wonderful role to be so effervescent and bubbly. The camera really loved her, as I do now too.
I missed this one at Sundance when it premiered early this year, and I am so glad that I caught it now. It’s an indie movie shot and promoted on a tiny budget BUT hopefully it will get to an Art House near you.
My final words here are not mine (for a change) but those of critic Elizabeth Weitzman of NY Daily News who aptly summed it up as ‘The most adorable filthy movie you may ever see’.
★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★
