Spotlight: Jamie Travis, the director of the new R-rated comedy For A Good Time, Call…

Travis’s film about phone sex and friendship has people talking (dirty)
By Michael White | Photography by Clint McLean

Jamie Travis made his name with a handful of meticulously stylized short films that won awards at festivals and established the young director as a Wes Anderson–style auteur. And yet, when he arrived at Sundance to screen his feature debut earlier this year, Travis brought something completely different. For a Good Time, Call… is a hilarious and unapologetically raunchy comedy that gives the classic odd couple scenario an R-rated jolt for the post-Bridesmaids era. In the film, which hits theatres this month, Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller (Seth Rogen’s wife, who co-wrote the film) star as two former college frenemies forced to become roommates and, shortly thereafter, proprietors of their own phone sex business. There is a surprisingly earnest and affecting portrait of modern female friendship at the film’s core, but, really, it’s all about the dick jokes. Travis’s swerve away from small and quirky toward broad and bawdy was a good move: the U.S. distributor Focus Features snatched up For a Good Time, Call… for more than $2 million, and studios have since inundated the 33-year-old director with scripts. He now spends most of his time jetting from Toronto to L.A. to meet with eager producers. Sometimes it pays to get a little naughty.