[7]

In New York City, a young nymphet named Alice (surely a Wonderland reference) receives an obscene phone call and immediately falls in love with the caller. She embarks on an urban adventure to find her lover, meeting one strange person after another, until finally coming face to face with the mystery man himself. The Telephone Book is all about sex, but it’s not a porno. It mostly just teases you with a lot of talk and suggestion. One woman talks about having sex with bananas and there’s an animated sequence in which a gigantic woman straddles a skyscraper and goes to town. And when our heroine does finally meet her gentleman caller, they just talk — and it’s kinda sweet. I’m not trying to undercut the perversity of the movie, because it’s plenty perverse. I guess I’d say it’s a classy kind of perverse. The episodic nature of Alice’s journey is a little cloying after a while, but I appreciate the overall experimental nature of the movie. With Sarah Kennedy, Jill Clayburgh, and William Hickey.